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THE LIFE 



OF 



T. W. 'P'l(lCi$, 



NOW OF 



ReKdbttth y Wilcox Co., ^^Ict. 



WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.- 



IS77. 

DAILY TIMES JOB PRINTING OFFICE, 
SELMA, ALA. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



T. W. P^ICiJj 



NOW OF 



ReKohcuth, Wzlcoj^ Co., ^^Icl, 



WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 



,y 1'^ COf 



) 

1877. 

DAILY TIMES JOB PRINTING OFFICE, 
SELMA, ALA. y^' , • 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by T. W, PRICE, in 
the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



^RBFJlCE. 



>^3 



I have written this little book not so much in a 
spirit of complaint, but more with a view to vindicate 
my course and acts of life. I desire to show that 
many of my acts have been misconstrued, and my 
motives unjustly suspected. I also desire to have an 
opportunity in this little boc)k, to return my thanks 
and gratitude to the many friends I have had during 
my trouble and losses. Another object I have in 
'iew, is, that the young and inexperienced, may be 
benefitted by my sad experience and errors. Having 
• ^arly lived out my three score and ten years, I have 
passed through many fiery ordeals, and if I can point 
out to the youth of our country, the many precipices, 
rocks and quicksands, they may have to pass over 
through lifn, that they may shun them, my labor 
may not be in vain. 

I hope they may read my address to them with 
pleasure and profit, and if they are thereby induced 
to shun the thousand snares set for them, I shall be 
gratified. 

Having written this little book at intervals of busi- 
ness, and frequent interruptions, and from memory 
in many instances, there may be many errors as to 
d ites and names, for which I hope allowances may 
be made. 

T. W. PRICE. 
Rehobath, Wilcox county, Ala., 

Sept, 1st, 1876. 



THE LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 



I was born (as well as I can state, not having seen 
any record of my birth), in the county of Grrochland, 
state of Virginia, in the year 1808, making me at this 
time, 1876, sixty eight years of age. 

My mother was Cynthia Walthal and was wealthy 
at her marriage, and a relative of the late Col. Rich- 
ard B. Walthal, of Perry county, Alabama ; she died 
as I understand when I was about two years old. 

My father was David Price, of a very extensive 
family of Prices in Henrico and adjoining counties in 
Virginia. He was also wealthy, but by security, as 
I <vas told, and other misfortunes, left his children 
nothing. He left two other children, Elizabeth who 
was born in 1810, just before the death of my mother. 
She is now Mrs, Archer and living in Dayton, Ma- 
rengo county, this state. The other was about two 
years older than myself, whose name was Henry, 
and who married in Clarke county, this state, raised 
a family and died there. 

My father having lost his wife, and his and her 
property, his mind, as I suppose, became impaired, 
he undertook to travel on horseback to Alabama 
about the year 1815, taking myself and brother with 
him, leaving my sister Elizabeth with her uncle. 



6 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 



Henry Wathal, in Chesterfield county, Virginia. 
My father, with myself and brother, traveled in this 
way through several states, and when out of money 
he would stop and teach school until he could get 
money to go on. We traveled in this way for about 
two years, when finally we reached what was called 
Magofiin's Store, in Clarke county, Alabama, and 
near where Grove Hill now is. My father by this 
time had become so delirious that he was incapable 
of doing an3'thing for himself or my brother, then 
with him, I was afilicted with a white swelling and 
hopping on one leg, and on which marks of the dis- 
ease are now to be seen. Mr. Magofiin saw the con- 
dition of my father, and saw that I was suffering with 
disease and no means of relief, he asked me if I 
would stay with him ; feeling afilicted as I did, and 
without money, clothes or friends, I readily consented 
to stay with him. This was in 1817. 

M}^ father and brother then went on to Mobile, and 
as my brother afterwards told me, my father made 
several attempts to commit suicide and finally did 
destroy himself in some way in Mobile, neither my 
brother or any one else, that I know of, was able to 
tell what was his end. 

My brother came back to Mr. Magoffin's, where 
my father left me, he staid with me a few days and 
went out in the neighborhood of Old Clarkesville, 
among the Flukers, the Cotes and Coxes, rpspectable 
and industrious farmers, who gave him work, and in 
which neighborhood he lived, married and died, leav- 
ing a widow and childrv^n. 

I remained with Mr. Magoffin from 1817 to 1829, 
during which time I did all kinds of work and busi- 
ness that I was ordered to do, going to school about 
three months in the time, making in all about six 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 



montlis up to 1829, which brought me up to the age 
of 21. 

I must say that Mr. Magoffin treated me well, but 
at the same time I can say that no slave or servant 
ever served a master more faithfully than I served 
him. I was a cripple for years, and finally he sent 
me to a Doctor Houston at St. Stephens, in Wash- 
ington county, then a flourishing village. I boarded 
at the house of Col. BulJock near St. Stephens, who 
had an interesting daughter about my age, and with 
whom I was very much pleased, though but a boy. 
Her name was Susan and she afterwards married a 
man named Evans in Mississippi, she was the mother 
of Rev. Mr. Evans who was the Methodist preacher 
for two years on this, the Rehoboth, Circuit. 

I remained with Dr. Houston about three months, 
and in that time he entirely cured the white swelling 
on my leg. 

Mr. Magoffin was raised in Philadelphia, was well 
educated, and was also a very practical man, very 
industrious, systematic and economical, and if I pos- 
sess any of those qualities, I am indebted to him lor 
such training in early life. He came to St. Stephens 
in the year 1809, and was highly esteemed by all who 
knew him, notwithstanding he lived and died a bach- 
elor. He filled many offices very acceptably under 
the government, the last of which was the Register of 
the land office at St. Stephens, which he held over 
thirty years; he was a delegate to the convention held 
at Huntsville, Ala., in 1819 to form a State Constitu- 
tion ; he represented Clarke county in the state Leg- 
islature in 1821 ; and he and James Caller represent- 
ed Washington county in the Legislature of Missis- 
sippi Territory. He was of a very respectable and 
intelligent family. He had a brother Buriah in Mo- 



8 LIFE OF T. W. PEICE. 

bile, who was teller in the Old Mobile Bank for a 
number of years, and who married a Miss Bell of a 
wealthy and respectable family of Wilcox county. 
He had a brother Thomas who was an extensive mer- 
chant in New Orleans, and an uncle or brother who 
was Governor of the state of Kentucky. 

While I was with Mr. Magoffin I became acquaint- 
ed with some of the most prominent men of the state 
at that day, suchasEx-Grovernor Bagby, Gen. Enoch 
Parsons, one of the earliest settlers of Clarke county 
and a very prominent lawyer and who was for many 
years associated in the practice with the Hon. A. B. 
Cooper, now of Wilcox county ; Hon. Jas. L. Dillett, 
Hon, J. W. Creagh and the Hon. F. S. Lyon, the 
latter I knew when he first commenced the practice 
of law and can remember to this day his peculiar ges- 
ture ; from that day to this I have always regarded 
him as a model of a man in every respect and one 
whom I have always thought I should be proud to 
imitate, and who to day is a worthy example for 
every young man to follow. I also lived near by, 
and was intimately acquainted with Gen. Joseph B. 
Chambers, a prominent and wealthy man of Clarke 
county, he was Senator from that county in 1819, he 
had several daughters, one whose name I think was 
Ann, she afterwards married a man by the name of 
King, Joseph I think, some of his descendants are of 
the most respectable families of Wilcox and Dallas 
counties. Gen. Joseph B. Chambers was the uncle 
of the late Green B. Chambers, of this county, who 
left a large and respectable family surviving him. 

When I left Mr. Magoffin, though I had served him 
ten years, he gave me nothing, not even clothes ; I then 
thought he treated me badly, but after matured years 
when I remembered he took me up when an orphan, 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 9 

in a wilderness, without friends, money or education, 
I concluded I had been better provided for than thou- 
sands in the same situation, and I felt and ever shall 
feel grateful to him. Though he sent me to school 
but three months in ten years, yet he instructed me 
at home, and when I left him I was a tolerable arith- 
metician, through the rule of three, barter and inter- 
est in the old Federal Calculator ; and could repeat 
the rules of English Grammar in "old Murray," and 
by the assistance of his key could parse tolerably 
well. I learned all the primary rules of arithmetic 
mj^self while sitting on the end of a gin leaver driv- 
ing two mules, in the fall and winter with a blanket 
around me. My grammar I carried in my pocket, 
and whenever I was driving a wagon or cart, or rid- 
ing on horseback, and would study it on my way, 
1 have in my library now, the hrst school books I 
ever had, going back to 1820 to 1830, which consist 
of Murray's grammar, geography, English reader, 
arithmetic, Murray's key and Murray's exercises and 
dictionary. These books, though old, are not even 
dog-eared as books usually are by boys at this day. 
I presume few men in this state of my age, 68, can 
say they have their tirst school books. My experi- 
ence in teaching for a number of years, is that most 
boys had frequently to buy a full set of school books 
at the commencement of every session, such habits of 
waste and carelessness were unpardonable, and which 
I frequently used efforts to correct, butinanti-bellum 
days, parents and children were so rich, they thought 
a set of books of little consequence. It is true the 
cost was small, but habits of such waste and careless- 
ness in childhood and youth were ruinous through 
life. I would here say to every young man, that let 
your circumstances be what they may, either in pov- 



10 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

ert}^ or wealth, remember that time is not your owu ; 
it is given you by your Creator for useful purposes, 
and it is your duty to economize time any money ; 
you have the moulding of your own destiny, and as 
you shape it in youth, so it will remain through life. 
Rich or poor never despair, never be idle, never stop 
trying. 

I always had a disposition to learn something from 
good books or from persons older and wiser than my- 
self, but for this disposition, for which I am thankful 
to my God, I might to-day have been a vagabond or 
in my grave. From my early training or from my 
natural disposition, I was never disposed to be idle, 
and such habits were never allowed to me by Mr. 
Magoffin. I wil] give one instance which I have 
never forgotton ; During some of the time I was with 
him he had a store and frequently I had to attend it 
in the absence of his first clerk, Stephen M. Gilmore 
who now lives in Clarke county and is a Methodist 
preacher, and stands high as such, and is much be- 
loved and respected ; there were two or three idle, 
uncontrolled, bad boys who frequented the store and 
ti'ied to get me in their bad, idle habits, as all such 
unprincipled boys do, and frequently lead others to 
ruin, and this is the rock on which thousands of boys 
have been led to ruin. Mr. Magoffin came in one 
day and found me sitting on a box with one of these 
bad boys playing a game called fox and geese, with 
corn, as was the custom with idlers in those days ; 
they had cut tlie form on the box, and out of curios- 
ity I thought I would see what was in the game ; Mr, 
Magoffin called me in the back room and gave me a 
severe reproof, but did not strike me, for that he 
never did do ; he then called me in the storeroom and 
pulled down one entire side of the goods and threw 



LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 11 

them on the couDter, and told me to dust off the 
shelves and then take every wrinkle out of the goods 
and put them up nicely. This I did without a mur- 
mur, and never spent my time playing fox and geese 
after that. I was poor and dependant and knew that 
if I refused to obey him that I might fall in worse 
hands. 

I often think now there are not many boys, espec^ 
ially among the rich who would have submitted to 
that, but would have notions of dignity and indepen- 
dence which would induce them to refuse. 

When I left Mr. Magoffin I was offered a little three 
months school in the neighborhood, which gave me 
about thirty scholars at $1.25 per month. When my 
time was out, the patrons were so well pleased with 
me that they engaged me for three months more. I 
had to study harder then than I ever did to keep 
ahead of my pupils in arithmeiic and English gram- 
mar, for when I first commenced teaching I was some 
times puzzled to tell a noun from a verb, and 1 some 
times now think I humbugged the children and the 
paients a little ; but 1 find in this day, and shame 
upon the piofession, that humbuggery is fashionable 
and the main lever of success in teaching, and no 
crime attached to it. While I was teaching these 
six months in old Clarke, I boarded in one of the 
best and most respectable families in the neighbor- 
hood, I mean Mr. David Payne. He and his wife 
were a father and mother to me, and the children 
were all well raised and obedient, and by the by one 
of them is the mother of the present wife of my friend 
Hon. J. Y. Kilpatrick, of Camden, who himself was 
a pupil of mine while I taught school at Dayton, in 
Marengo county.. While I was teaching in old Clarke 
I had the honor of teaching some of the most respec- 



12 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 



table families of that community, among them the 
Hon. Jas, S. Dickinson and two of his brothers, Pe- 
ter and Richard, and two of his sisters, Elizabeth and 
Sarah, I think were their names. The Hon. Jas, S. 
Dickinson now lives at Grove Hill within two miles 
of the place where I taught him his alphabet. 

During the time I was teaching there I was corres- 
ponding with his brother, Wm. C. Dickinson, who 
was then teaching school at White Hall, in Marengo 
county, after which he merchandized several years in 
old Centerville, near Dayton, Marengo county. He 
then went to Mobile, engaged in the commission bus- 
iness, was very popular as such and did a very large 
business. While I was corresponding with him at 
White Hall, he encouraged me to come up there and 
go to school, this I concluded to do, having saved all 
the money I could from the proceeds of my six 
months school. When my term was out I went up 
to White Hall, and entered school with Mr. Wm. C. 
Dickinson and boarded with Mr. Edwin A. Glover, 
with whom Mr. Dickinson boarded. 

I remained there live months, as long as my money 
lasted to pay board, Mr. Dickinson charged me no 
tuition. I expressed a desire to continue at school 
longer, for I saw no business before me, and had paid 
Mr. Glover my board, he then told me to continue 
school there as long as I thought proper, and if I 
never was able to pa^^ him board it would make no 
difference, and I took him at his oifer, and I never 
was treated more kindly by an}'^ man. Some people 
have said hard things about him, but I always found 
him and his wife, liberal, benevolent and kind heart- 
ed ; I shall ever remember with pleasure and grati- 
tude their kindness to me. I went on to school about 
two months, and Mr. Glover, his brotlier Jarrot and 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 13 

Judge Alston all seemed to take an interest in me 
and exerted themselves in getting me into business, 
and about that time a vacancy for a school occurred 
in the neighborhood of Mr. I. D, Catlin at a church 
called Antioch, about six miles from Linden ; which 
neighborhood was densely populated with wealthy 
and good citizens, snch as the Parkers, Cades, Holts, 
Adams, Woolfs, Jacksons, Greens, Currjs, Lacys 
and others. With Mr. Dickinson's recommendation 
I got the school and boarded in the family of Mr. 
Sherro Parker, whose wife was a mother to me. I 
commenced with seventeen pupils, but soon got up 
to sixty, I continued there for two years, boarded 
at the same house all the time, and never had a more 
pleasant school or lived in a more agreeable commu- 
nity. 

There I laid the foundation of an education of 
many boys and girls who turned out to be some of 
our best citizens, such as the daughters of Mr. Par- 
ker, who married such men as Mr. R. R. Pickering, 
Cul. 0. Lea, Hon. W M. Smith. The tons and 
daughters of Mr. James B. Woolf, Judge Woblf, 
Doctor Woolf and H. A. Woolf, the best citizens of 
Marengo county, were all pupils "of mine. While 
teaching there I was very frequently in the school 
room from one hour after sunrise until sundown, and 
taught -the whole year round, having only one week 
at Christmas. If I had occasion to use the rod noth- 
ing was said about it, the question as to whether the 
teacher or pupil'was right was not then discussed as 
it is now. 

This brought me to the year 1882. Prom the pro- 
ceeds of school I entered one hundred and sixty acres 
of land, known now as the Laughford place, on the 
road between Linden and Dayton, I also bought one 



14 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

negro man, old Isham a native African, I put him on 
the land I had entered, to clearing, fencing and build- 
ing. I then concluded I would go back to Virginia, 
my native spot, to see the world and my relatives ; 
bought me a fine horse and rigging and set out on 
horseback to make the trip, for then there was no 
railroads. This was one of the follies of my life, for 
then I had the time and the money to go to College. 
Had at the time a thirst for knowledge, and much 
inclined to take collegiate course , had I done this I 
would have acted wisely, and might have to-day been 
a very different man. 

I spent that entire year, 1832, in traveling and vis- 
iting. I being rather a ladies' man, fell in love with 
several young ladies, but they all thought Alabama 
too much of a frontier country for them, at that time. 

I returned to Antioch in Marengo county, took the 
same school, boarded in the same family (Parkers). 
Taught that year, 1833, bought more land adjoining 
the place I had entered, put a white man on it to im- 
prove it and take care of some little stock I had on 
the place. 

About this time a new brick academy was finished 
in Linden. Myself and Mr. Richard Dickinson, a 
brother of the Hon. James S. Dickinson, of Clarke 
county, were solicited to take charge ot it, which we 
did, and had a good school, and taught many boys 
and girls v;ho are now good citizens, such as the 
Irbys, Bondwrants, Bryants, Rains, Cunninghams, 
Coxs, Williams, Curry and Gains, 

Many of the boys, now fathers and grandfathers, 
that were at that school, have since told me, that 
around that academy there was not growing a single 
gum, chinquepin or willow tree, and asked me if I 
knew the reason ot it. I told them no. They replied 



LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 15 

that when I was teaching school there I had cut them 
all down to get switches to whip bad boys. I know 
that I had the reputation of being a strict disciplina- 
rian, and therefore had in schpol many of the bad 
boys in the country. I was in this particular charged 
with more thrashing than I did. 

I was not the Price who was called the "thrashino; 
machine." This was a Price, a lame man, who 
taught school many years at Tuscaloosa, and who 
advertised his school as a ''Thrashing machine." 
He and his school were known to the public under 
that name. He always had a good school and so did 
Professor Beaman, of Georgia, who taught many 
years on the same principle and educated some of the 
first men of that country. 

Though I was, and am yet, a strong believer in 
that good old Bible doctrine ' 'Spare the rod and spoil 
the child," yet it was always painful to me to resort 
to the rod, but when necessity required it, I could 
not shrink from a duty, which I felt incumbent upon 
me. I am more and more convinced as I advance in 
life and spe the ruin and idleness of mau}^ of our boys 
and young men at this day, that if that injunction of 
the Biblp, "the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a 
child left to himself bringeth his parents to shame," 
was fully carried out, parents would see less trouble 
about the conduct of their sons and we would have 
better citizens, and our boys and j^oung men would 
be more happ}^ and prosperous. 

Myself and Mr. Dickinson taught at Linden, one 
session in 1834, and my health from long sedentary 
habits became bad, I had to live a more active life. 
Left the school with my former partner, Mr. Dickin- 
son, and engaged in business as a clerk in the store 
of J. H. & F. G. Adams, then extensive merchants in 



16 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

Linden. I continued with them, I think, until the 
spring of 1835, at the same time keeping up my place 
already referred to, between Linden and Dayton. 

Having a home then, paid for, some money and out 
of debt, I concluded I must have a wife, that she 
must be a Virginian, and one whom I had seen when 
I was there in 1882, and so in 1885, I went horseback 
and was married, and moved out to my place in the 
fall of that year, bringing my wife and her sister Re- 
becca, and their negroes. 

In the meantime, in 1833, several of my relatives, 
Mr. Batte and the Walthal family, moved to Maren- 
go county, bringing my sister Elizabeth — now Mrs. 
Archer, of Dayton. Her education had been very 
much neglected, as most orphans are, I sent her to 
school near Canton, in Wilcox county, and she 
boarded in the family of Mrs. Bethea. 

In 1836 I went on farming and the first crop of cot- 
ton I raised I got 18f cents per pound, and concluded 
a fortune was before me. But ah, an inexperienced 
unsuspecting man, who had been much of his life 
shut up in a school room was not aware of the snares 
that were spread by a hostile world. Those days 
from about the year 1835 to 1837 were known as the 
flush times of Alabama^ when the whole country was 
flooded with shinplasters and lank bills, and credit 
with everybody was unlimited ; commission mer- 
chants were riding over the country, begging the far- 
mers to buy property and drav; on them to pay for 
it. The consequence was property went up and I 
could hear almost daily of some man who had made 
a little fortune by buying land and negroes. The 
cotton crops were so abundant every year, that some 
of the fields were white in March, and hands had to 
take sticks and knock the cotton and stalks down to 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 17 

prepare for plowing for another crop. Negro fellows 
went to $1500 and $2000, land to fifteen and twenty 
dollars per acre, and one tract near old Centreville 
sold for eighty-seven and a half dollars per acre. I 
then had a good property, good credit, some money 
and out of debt, but concluded I must follow the ex- 
ample of others and make a fortune at once, and 
bought land and negroes, just before the crash came. 
I bought a tract of land on Dry Creek, near Dayton, Ijr^^'v ,-,^^ 
known as the Mathew's place, was to give six thou- | , g 
sand dollars, paid four thousand dollars, was sued'^ ^^v^v-i 
for the balance, and the land was sold by the sheriff, 
which did not pay the balance due upon it. When 
I give my reasons for my course it may not seem al- 
together so foolish. Where I settled my place on the 
road from Linden to Woodville, then called, now 
Uniontown, was a beautiful sandy ridge, well tim- 
beied and well watered, where the town of Dayton 
now stands. This ridge was surrounded in every di- 
rection for miles by a very rich soil and lying well. 
From these facts I concluded that the ridge referred \ 
to, would at no distant day, be a valuable place for 
business, for residences, schools, &c, — J 

In this I was not mistaken, as time has proved. I 
therefore concluded there could be no risk in buying 
good land contiguous to that ridge. 

To prove my faith by my works, I bought forty 
acres of land from John Minchen, three other men 
owned forty acres each, all cornering in the center. 
At my suggestion, we concluded we would lay off 
lots of eight acres each, making thirty-two acres in 
the town, these were laid off in square blocks con- 
taining each one acre, and each block into four lots 
containing one qiiarter ot an acre. 

Accordingly we employed Mr. T. C. Ghilson, then 



18 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

County Surveyor, and who on the 26th day of No- 
vember, 1836, commenced and did lay off the town 
as above stated. This survey may be found recorded 
in general plan in l>ook A, pages 43, 44 and 45. 

I then immediately put me up a store house of 
round logs, on the spot where the store house of the 
late Mr. Green Askew now stands. 

This was the first house built within the limits of 
the town of Dayton. I put in that house ten thou- 
sand dollars worth of goods and groceries, which I 
bought on a credit, and as it turned out, it was one 
of the follies and errors of my life. In that store I 
put a young man, or rather boy at that time, who 
lived in the neighborhood and whose family were 
good friends of mine. I took him from the plow han- 
dles in coperas breeches and russet shoes and with 
but little education, I was absent most of the time, 
living three miles from the store and having a farm 
to attend. The consequence was, I left the store in 
the hands of my clerk assisted by another young 
man. I am astonished now that I should then have 
left my property in the hands of inexperienced and 
unsuspecting young men, however good their inten- 
tions may have been. 

My goods were credited out to negroes, overseers, 
transient people, gamblers, and drunkards. My 
books show that men would come to the store in my 
absence and gamble, and the loser would pay the 
winner in my goods or orders drawn on me, wiiich 
my clerk paid. I will mention one instance which I 
was told occurred in m}^ store : Two gamblers met 
there and made the other drunk, an \ propped him 
up and actually won from him five hundred dollars 
which was paid in my goods. In the course of a few 
months my goods were scattered from Georgia to 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. ' 19 

Texas. I do not think I realized four thousand dol- 
lars from the entire stock of goods. 

Another instance of my entire confidence in man, I 
must here relate, with a hope that it may be a warn- 
ing to some young man not to shipwreck himself on 
the same rock. 

It was about as follows— In 1836, when I had the 
store in Dayton, I had occasion to go to Mobile on 
business, but not to buy goods. On my way I be- 
came acquainted with a young man, J. C. Ogbern, 
who was going to Mobile for the purpose of buying 
goods. He was very communicative to me tor a 
stranger, told me he had letters of recommendation 
from such and such men living in Sumter county 
whom I knew, said he expected lo buy a stock of 
about six thousand dollars, and open a store at a 
new place on the west side of the Tombigbee river 
called Tuscahoma. After we reached Mobile he told 
me he found that the gentlemen to whom he had let 
ters had ceased business and left the city. He asked 
me if I would assist him in making his purchases as- 
suring niH that he would give me ten per cent on the 
invoices in Mobile and good security for the amount, 
naming the men. The idea of making six hundred 
so eas}^ was an inducement, and having a good credit 
in Mobile, I went round to the dry goods store of 
Mr. Georgp G. Henry and had no trouble in getting 
the goods for Mr. Ogbern. Concluding that I could 
risk nothing as 1 was going up the river with him 
and having the goods shipped on the same boat; it 
was understood that he would give me the notes and 
security when we landed at Tuscahoma. He went on 
and made his bill, had the goods packed and marked 
diamond O. I gave my notes payable at the bank 
to Mr. Henry. On the evening of the departure of 



20 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

the boat on which the goods were shipped, something 
occurred so that I could not leave. I told Mr. Og- 
bern to go on with the goods, and I would stop at 
Tuscahoma as I came up and get the promised notes 
and security, 

I had to remain in Mobile until the next boat went 
up, hearing that the goods were landed at Tuscaho- 
ma and that probably all would be right, and passing 
there in the night, and being anxious to get home, 
having been absent much longer thau I had antici- 
pated, I went on home and remained there about ten 
days. Tlien concluded I would get on ray horse and 
ride to Tuscahoma and attend to my Ogbern matter. 
I did so, and when I reached there found Ogbern had 
absconded, taking a part of the goods with him and 
the balance attached by his creditors. I went to 
work, brought several suits to recover what goods 
were attached, and after much trouble and expense, 
recovered some of the goods, which I sold there for 
some land on Tickabum, in Sumter county, which I 
afterwards sold but realized but little from it. 

Now it would seem that no sane man would have 
acted as I have in this matter, and I can now only 
account for it, by my unlimited confidence in my fel- 
low man, Through my life, until a few years ago^ I 
have been disposed to believe what a man would 
tell me, which I have found to be a great and sad 
mistake of my life. My friends have often told me 
so. 

The Hon. A. R. Manning, who was then a very 
prominent attorney at Linden, had the collection of 
the notes due George G. Henry for the goods I pur- 
chased for Ogbern. This six thousand dollars added 
to the six thousand I lost in my store at Dayton, and 
the six thousand I lost in ray land purchase on Dry 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 21 

Creek, made eighteen thousand dollars. It took me 
about two 3^ears, (whi''h brought me to 1839,) to get 
through, costing me in the end about twenty thou- 
sand dollars, and leaving me without a foot of land, 
except some lots in Dayton, or a negro ; and I bad 
to stand and see my wife's last negro sold to pay my 
debts. The sheriff (Dubose) even sold my interest in 
two negroes I hired for the year. 

Bui for the negroes owned ty my mother in-law 
and my wife's sister Rebecca, I would not have had 
a negro on the place. I v;as now flat, and had to re- 
sort to teaching again. 

About that time, 1840, a large two story academy 
was erected in Dayton. An election was held for of- 
ficers and resulted as follows : — Rev. Edward Baptist, 
president ; Dr. D. M. A. Dansby, vice president; T. 
W, Frice, secretary, and R. B. W. Kerksey, treas- 
urer. The Executive committee consisted of R. G. 
Cook, VVm. F. Henry and S. J. Harris. 

I then employed a workman to build me a two 
story luuse in Dayton, suitable for a boarding house 
and tavern. Mr. James Conner, now proprietor of 
the Bladdon Springs, assumed the debt and took a 
mortgage on the lot. The house was built, I moved 
to Dayton, took the academy, I think after Mr. John 
Showalter had taught one or two years. Went on 
teaching, keeping hotel and boarding house until the 
year 1844, all the time having assistants and a large 
school, and made enough to pay for my house, hav- 
ing the use of the servants belonging to my mother- 
in-law, who had in the meantime moved from Rich- 
mond, Va,, and the servants belonging to my wife's 
sister Rebecca, but for this I would not have been 
able to have carried on my business. 

About this time Mr. R. H, Kilpatrick, who then 



22 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

lived in Dayton, and who had several children, and 
among them my little pupil, and now the Hon. J. Y. 
Kilpatrick, of Camden, joined with me in tlie school 
in the Dayton academy. We taught together, if I 
am not mistaken, about two years. I kept on teach- 
ing with other assistants for, I think, two years, 
bringing me to 1846. On the 4th of July of that year 
there was a celebration and I had the honor of being 
the orator of the day. 

In the evening a dance was proposed, and the acad- 
em}^ the place, I had the key and charge of the 
academy, and the advocates of the dance applied to 
me for the key and the use of the house. I refused 
them unless by the consent of the Trustees. They 
would not consent. One of the men wht) favored the 
dance, lived in the community, and was a liberal 
subscriber to building the academy, he was a man of 
strong prejudices, and unyielding in his disposition, 
and to carry his point in that case he shouldered an 
axe and told the dancing crowd to follow him. They, 
with many others, followed him. They marched 
over to the academy, and he, the leader, with his axe 
hewed off one corner of the house, knocked the door 
open, and all hands went in and had the dance. 

This circumstance made me enemies, and as I al- 
ways thought wrongfully so. This also added to a 
prejudice which then existed against me by some of 
the aristocrats in the community, because I would 
not bow the knee or become a lick-spittle for them. 
They determined to put me down. They called a 
meeting, made speeches, and a certain doctor, I was 
told, spoke himself out of his breeches; elected new 
trustees to the academy ; imported a teacher from 
l,>oston, and built a large hotel in the business part 
of the village, with a view, no doubt, to oust me. 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 23 

Isiii>pose they thought they would then get me 
out of the way. I have often seen it the case, that 
when a man is unfortunate, some of those, whom he 
had most befriended, while in prosperity, were the 
tirst to forsake and even censure and reproach him. 
This may be accounted for, because they think him 
of no more use to them and that they cannot use him 
for their own vile purposes. Not only this but they 
blaze abroad his failings, in order that they may 
cover their own perfidiousness in forsaking him. 

I thank my God that this is not always the case, 
for I always have found some true friends in adver- 
sity as well as prosperity. Especially was this so in 
the case just referred to. Mr. Daniel Stewart who 
lived about half a mile east of Dayton, where Dr. 
Woolf afterwards lived, and now T. B. Gains, had a 
vacant house «)n his land made of logs, and I believe 
had been built for a school house, he told me if I 
would come over there and teach, I should have the 
use of the house as long as I wanted it free of charge, 
and that he would use his influence for me. He had 
several children and an extensive family connection 
of the Morgans, Lloyds, Mitchells and others. I took 
his offer, and getting all things ready at the proper 
time, commenced ray school, and soon had sixty pu- 
pils, which fille 1 the house and the woods around, 
while the imported teacher, in the large academy, 
had twenty. 

This brought me to 1848, and my particular friends 
(ironically), concluded as I suppose, that there was 
no way to get rid of me, except to buy my property 
there, which consisted of a house and lot, used as a 
boarding house and hotel. The proposition was 
made to buy me out with one special clause in the 
deed, and that was I should bind myself not to open 



24 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

a school within twelve miles of Dayton. This I agreed 
to, sold the property and made the deed. 

In 1849 I moved to Creagh's neighborhood, near 
the road from Linden to Praiiie Blnft', wbich was a 
very wealthy and populous community, with such 
men as A. M. Creagh, the Kelley.-. Dr. Thomas, Ed- 
wards, Jacksons, Peikins, Glovprs, and the Widow 
Creagh who afterwards married Hon A. B. Cooper. 
There I found good friends, and especially in that 
good man Alex. M. Creagh, who fuinislied me a 
house to live in, and lumber to build a good house, 
the one now occupied by Mr. N. B Gloverat Boiling 
Spring Church , he gave me the use of as much land 
as I wanted, and aided me in many other ways ; he 
was a friend in need. He died several years ago and 
I hope, and have no doubt, but that he was fitted for 
heaven and prepared for enduring bliss. 

I commenced my school in the old academy near 
Mr. John Kelley's, on the Prairie Bluff road, Sepr. 
17th, 1849, and soon had a large school, many of my 
old pupils followed me from Dayton and Lynden, 
but before the session was closed the academy was 
burned down from some cause unknown to me. 

I went immediately, by the consent of the church 
and community, with my school into tlie old Church 
at Boiling Spring. Most of the school books and sta- 
tionery were burned with the academy. I sent to 
Mobile for another supply. 

In the meantime a subscription was gotten up to 
build a new academy, with two large rooms and a 
hall, which was soon tinished. This shows the mag- 
nanimity, enterprise and liberality of the citizens of 
that community. That house has since been made a 
private dwelling, and is now owned and occupied by 
my young friend David Cooper, who I believe, was a 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 25 

pupil of mine ^«^hen I taught there. I am told there 
is a sign or motto on the house now, that I left there 
twenty-seven years ago. 

I must here allude to my assistant teacher and state 
how I came to get him. About the time I was leav- 
ing Dayton Mr. Hall Grangent came to my house — 
stayed a few days. Told me he had been teaching 
in Sumpter County, but had gotten into a difficulty 
from drinking, and left there. I soon discovered he 
was a good classical and mathematical scholar — just 
such a one as I then wanted. He proposed to go with 
me as assistant teacher for $20 per month and his 
board. Not knowing how the school would pay in 
the neighborhood in which I was then going, I did 
not like to promise him fixed wages. I told him if 
he would pay his board and half the expenses of car- 
rying on the school I would give him one-half of the 
proceeds. This he readily agreed to, with a promise 
that he would not use any intoxicating liquors to ex- 
cess. 

The first session of ten months I think closed 17th 
of July, 1850. The proceeds of our school were 
about $1,500. We had no trouble in collecting our 
tuition fees, nor did we lose one cent. We taught 
another session, commencing in September, 1850, and 
closing in July, 1851. Our second session was better 
attended and more profitable than the first, with 
equal success in collecting. 

I must here mention a little incident which shov/s 
how many are governed by external show. Shortly 
alter my first session commencedin theCreagh neigh- 
borhood, a young man came to my house, well 
mounted and well dressed, with his gloves on, and an 
umbrella over him. We had just moved there and 
everything was rough and in confusion. I was (it 



26 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

being Saturday) out in the woods, clad in my work- 
ing clothes, driving a wagon hauling rails. My wife 
sent him out to me. He came out where I was and 
addressed me as if I were a servant, and asked me to 
tell him where Mr. Price was. I told him 1 was the 
man. He seemed surprised that a man at the head 
of a large school should be out in the woods driving 
a wagon and dressed as I was. He, however, told 
me his name and his business. He was the son of a 
wealthy widow lady who lived in Dallas county, who 
wished to send him and his brother to school and 
board with me. I invited him to the house, gave hiri 
a circular, and told him I could accommodate him, 
and my buildings would soon be finished and I could 
give him and his brother a good room. He went 
back and gave his mother, as I understood after- 
wards, such a description of the place and my ap- 
pearance as a common laborer, that he protested 
against going to school at such a place and to such a 
man. His mother I suppose gratified him, and they 
(he and his brother) did not attend our school. 

During the year 1851, a large two-story building 
was erected at Rehobath, Wilcox county, for a male 
and female academy. Before ray last session closed 
at Boiling Spring, about six miles from Rehobath, 
Mr. Burgess Bennett, Major Young, and I think Mr, 
Christian, waited on me to know if I could be got to 
take charge of the Academy at Rehobath for a series 
of years. I told them I was well situated, had a very 
profitable school, and liked the people very much, 
but that certain things might induce me to move, 
and that I would take their proposition into consid- 
eration and would give them an answer before my 
session at Boiling Spring expired. When I saw them 
again they told me that in addition to their proposi- 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 27 

tion they were authorized by Mr. H. S. Atwood to 
say that he would give me a bonus of $200 if I would 
go to Rehobath. 

Mr. Atwood was then building a large hotel and 
warehouse on the Alabama river, known as Aola 
landing, and to which he was constructing a plank 
road, just above Mixen's landing. Mr, Atwood died 
and the whole plan was abandoned. 

The inducements were such as to lead me to Reho- 
bath. Bought me a small place near there, known as 
the Tom Anderson place, and took charge of the 
Academy on the first day of September, 1851, Con- 
tinued there for several years, having boys and girls 
from Dayton, Linden and adjoining counties, varying 
every session from 100 to 150 pupils, I found the 
Academy too small, and too much difficulty in gov- 
erning males and females in the same building. I 
therefore built at my own expense a male academy, 
costing me then about $2,000. It is the building now 
occupied as a storehouse by Mr. J. H. Malone. I 
then found it was necessary for me to be near the 
Academy, and in May, 1854, I bought the house and 
lot of the Rev. Thos. iiurpo, where Mr. Malone now 
lives. Put an addition to the dwelling, built a large 
dining room and sleeping room for boys. I also con- 
tributed largely to build a music room, bought fur- 
niture for the academy, black boards, globes, maps, 
philosophical and chemical apparatus, pianos, etc., 
all at my own expense to build up a school. Hence 
nearly all I made was consumed in that way. 

I went on teaching until 1859, when my health 
failed me. I had been reading law, and had been 
magistrate at Rehobath^for a number of years, and 
as my old friend, W. B. Modauvell, once said, I con- 
cluded there was as much law in a little case as a big 



28 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

one ; so on the 12th of April, 18i59, I applied for and 
obtained license to practice law, and had a good 
practice in Dallas, Wilcox, Clarke and Marengo 
counties, and on the 17th of January obtained license 
to practice in the Supreme Court, 

Nothing remarkable occurred with me or in my 
school until 1860, when the war was inevitable. I 
had then twelve or fifteen boys and young men in my 
school, who became restless and so keen to get into 
the Confederate army that they were afraid a battle 
would be fought before they would get there. 

By this time (1861) the excitement became so great 
that a large number of boys and young men left the 
school. The prospects were so discouraging that I 
abandoned the school, with all the buildings, books, 
furniture, apparatus, etc., on my hands. 

The parents and guardians of those boys who left 
school wrote to me to use my influence to keep them 
in school. This I found impossible. I will here re- 
late a little anecdote in relation to one of the young 
men who left the school to go in the army, He was 
boasting what a soldier he would make and how 
many Yankees -he would kill, and remarked to a 

gentleman, Mr. W , that if ever he was shot it 

would be in the breast, pushing in the front of the 
battle. 

He went in the army and was shot in the first bat- 
tle, got a furlough, came home, and happened to 
meet Mr. W. in a crowd, and in speaking of the bat- 
tle asked the young man in what part of the body he 
was wounded. He raised his hand to the back of his 
head and said the ball struck there. This created a 
considerable laugh, tor many knew what the young 
man had said about being shot in the breast. 

I was, during the existence of that party, a Whig, 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 29 

afterwards I voted for Democrats. I never was a 
violent politician, or strong partisan. I have always 
thought there were good men in every party, but I 
conclude that it is rarely the case that goud men be- 
come strictly partj^ leaders, for we have now many 
demagogues who, as I conceive, have very little 
patriotism. The object seems to be entirely to carry 
out party spirit, without regard to merit or qualifi- 
cation. The questions with the great statesman, 
Jefferson, were, is he honest? is he worthy? is he 
competent ? These questions are now entirely ig- 
nored, and the great question now is, to what party 
does he belong. Office seeking has become a kind of 
professional business, and sometimes impudence and 
intrigue have more weight than true patriotism. I 
cannot express my views better upon this subject 
than to quote the language of a celebrated writer. 

He says : ''Office seeking has become a game, in 
which the applicants are the pack, demagogues the 
players, and the government, alias the dear sover- 
eign people, the table played upon. The secret of 
true wisdom consists in keeping out of the pack, liv- 
ing in sweet communion with your family, friends, 
and with the author of all good. When virtue and 
genuine patriotism predominate, offices will seek good 
and competent men, who should answer the call as a 
matter of duty, not of pleasure or profit. If corrup- 
tion, intrigue and duplicity are the order of the day 
it is useless for good men to enter the arena of appli- 
cants ; they will be jostled out, have their names 
traduced and their feelings mortified. Let them 
rather aid in clearing out the Augean stable, as the 
only means of safety for themselves and our 
country." 

I was opposed to the war, and believed that if our 



30 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

great country south of Mason & Dixon's line was 
ever prostrated, that the world would weep over the 
ruins of our great Republic. I was opposed to sep- 
arating from the North or dissolving the Union. I 
thought if a fight had to come that we had better 
fight our enemies in the Union and not out of it. I 
was in favor of the old maxim of the great Mr. Fox, 
" Iniquissimann pacem justissima hello anteferi.'''' 
" Prefer the most disadvantageous peace to the just- 
est war." For these honest sentiments I was some- 
times taunted as a Union man, which was not a very 
popular doctrine about that time. After Alabama 
seceded from the Union I felt it my duty to act with 
my people and State. The results of the war show 
that I was not so much mistaken in my views as to 
the consequences that would follow. We have been 
forced back into the Union, after having lost thou- 
sands of our best citizens, rivers of blood and millions 
of treasure, with thousands of dependent widows and 
orphans left to suffer in our country, and ourselves 
placed under cruel and oppressive laws. 

Well, I must get back to the time I abandoned my 
school at Rehobath in 1861. I then gave my entire 
time to the practice of law. Did a good business. 
Was attorney in settling up several large estates, 
such as W. R. Rand, John W. Davis, Jas. G. Young 
and others. Was administrator of several small 
estates and guardian of several children. Continued 
a profitable practice up to the latter part of Decem- 
ber, 1865. On the 23d day of December of that year, 
myself and Mr. R. C. Jones of Camden united in the 
practice of law, under the firm name of Price & 
Jones. The partnership was limited to three years. 
At the expiration of the three years we agreed to 
continue our partnership on the same terms, until 



LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 31 

either party desired a dissolution. We continued 
the practice as partners until 1871, and on the 9th 
day of January of that year we made our final set- 
tlement and dissolved. Most of the time, if I mistake 
not, we were second on the docket as attornies to the 
number of cases. I will take occasion here to say 
that during the whole time of our partnership, if 
there ever was an angry word or the least ill feeling 
between us, I am not apprised ot it. I can say fur- 
ther, that tor the amount of dealing we had with 
each other, I have never found a more honorable, 
high-minded and courteous gentleii an, in every re- 
spect, than my young friend, Mr. R. C. Jones. 

I must go back to the year 1864, when, on the 24th 
day of August of that year, I was appointed Com- 
missioner under the act of Congress approved June 
14th, 1864, providing for the establishment and pay- 
ment of the cla'.ms for a certain description of prop- 
erty taken or informally impressed for the use of the 
Confederate army, for the Ninth Congressional Dis- 
trict of Alabama^ comprising the counties of Wilcox, 
Monroe, Clarke, Washington, Baldwin, Conecuh and 
Mobile. Under that law% the compensation allowed 
me, as such Commissioner, was ten dollars per day 
while actually engaged in the performance of my 
duties, imposed upon me by this act, and thirty cents 
per mile for every mile actually traveled by me, and 
telegraph, printing and stationery. I got this ap- 
pointment through the influence and exertion of my 
true and worthy friend, the Hon. Jas. S. Dickinson, 
of Clarke county, who was then a member of the 
Confederate Congress at Richmond, Virginia. 

He, on the 14th day of November, 1864, while in 
Congress, introduced a bill to am-^nd the act of the 
14th of June, 1864, so as to increase ray compensa- 



32 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

tion to double the amount allowed under the origi- 
nal act. Whether the bill ever passed or not I am 
not able to say. If it did I was not benefitted, for by 
the time I finished my labor ani travelling over 
seven counties, paying expenses out of my own 
pocket, and getting the claims forwarded and my own 
account auditted, the whole bottom of our Confed- 
eracy fell out, and Confederate money became worth- 
less. So neither I or those who had their property 
impressed by the government ever gjt anything. I 
was told afterward that a large amount of Confeder- 
ate money was deposited at Montgomery for me and 
the owners of the propert3\ I never thought it worth 
going after or enquiring about, and don't know that 
the claimants ever got their worthless stuff. 

That the people now and in future may know the 
value placed on property during that year (1864) and 
the amount that was taken in the 9th Congressional 
district, by officers authorized to impress property, I 
will here state some facts which my books show, 
giving the names of the owners and species of prop- 
erty. The government prescribed the mode of estab- 
lishing the claims, which had to be in writing, sup- 
ported by the oath of the claimant, and by the affi- 
davit of one or more witnesses. The claimant had to 
show by whom this property was taken, at what 
time, for what purpose, and at what price. The 
Commissioner had the power to examine the claimant 
and witnesses orally upon the subject^of the claims, 
and record their testimony. 

Mules valued at from S800 to $1,200 ; horses from 
$1,200 to $2,500 ; wagon and team, $2,940; nine beef 
cattle, $2,790. 

Amount ol property taken from each county in 
this (the 9th) district, to-wit : 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 33 

Wilcox county 144 persons $218,040 40 

Monroe " 37 •' .... 59,156 50 

Conecuh " 6 " .... 3,159 00 

Baldwin " 1 " ... 2.790 00 

Clarke " 16 " .... 17,322 50 

Mobile " 24 " .... 122,750 00 

Washington county, (no one met me.) 

$423,218 40 
On the first day of November of the same year, 
1864, Gen. Duff C. Green, of Montgomery, Alabama, 
forwarded me a number of blanks for the collection 
of claims for loss of slaves impressed to labor upon 
public works, which blanks had been approved by a 
board of directors. This form required the owner's 
name, residence, slave's name, impressment agent, 
when impressed, for how long, how lost, died or es- 
caped, and witnesses to prove ownership, age and 
value. Gen. Green was to get 10 per cent, of recov- 
ery, and he agrt ed to gwe me 5 per cent, on all the 
claims I established and were recovered. 

I went to work and established the claims for forty 
different negroes, mostly in Wilcox county, valued 
at from $1,600 to $6,000, making in the aggregate 
$129,200, making my fees $6,460. I forwarded all 
the claims to Gen. Green, but about that time our 
government and everything else went overboard, and 
I never knew what became of the claims or General 
Green. But one thing I do know, and that is, that I 
spent much of my time and mone}' in the service of 
the government, for which I received nothing. 

Under the proclamation of President Johnson, of 
the 29th day of May, 1865, general amnesty or par- 
don was granted to all persons vvho had directly or 
indirectly participated in the then existing rebellion, 



34 LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 

with restoration of all rights of property except as to 
slavery, with a proviso that there were fourteen dif- 
ferent classes of people excluded from the benefits of 
this general amnesty. 

Many of our best citizens were found in some of 
those fourteen classes of exceptions. They therefore 
had to make application to the President, asking 
clemency at his hands, and which application had to 
be recommended by Governor Parsons. I belonged 
to one of the excepted classes, and my crime consist- 
ed in having been Postmaster at Rehobath during 
the war, and holding the office of Commissioner to 
adjust claims for impressed property. I filed my 
application in July, 1865, asking His Excellency 
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, to 
grant me full pardon and amnesty for" all my offenses 
arising from participation, direct or indirect, in the 
rebellion. 

My friend, Hon, A. B, Cooper, drew up my peti- 
tion, and he, Chancellor J. R. John, and the late 
Hon. Wm. M. Bird, recommended it to Governor 
Parsons, and he to the President, and on the 12th 
day (^f September, 1865, my pardon was signed by 
the Presidebt and forward d to me. 

I must here acknowledge a debt of gratitude I owe 
Judge 'Cooper and others for the interest they mani- 
fested in my behalf in this matter. 

During the year 1836 I wrote out and filed the peti- 
tions for pardon of eleven gentlemen, the best citi- 
zens of the county of Wilcox, and one lady. Some 
of the gentlemen came under the thirteenth exception 
in the proclamation of President Johnson on the 29th 
of May, 1865, and whose crimes consisted in volun- 
tarily participating in the rebellion, and whose prop- 
erty was estimated at the value of over $20,000. 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 35 

Notwithstanding I had a friend (John B. Taylor) at 
Montgomery, and C. L. Sayre at "Washington City, 
to assist me in these matters, I went to Montgomery 
three times, to Washington City once, and thence to 
New Yorli to see Governor Parsons in relation to the 
applications. I linallj^ succeeded in getting the 
twelve pardons. The parties all paid me well for my 
time and labor, from $150 to $200 each, paying me 
about $2,000 in greenbacks for a few months' work 
at intervals. This in some degree reimbursed me for 
my heavy losses in Confederate money. I felt under 
obligations to those men who gave me that business 
at that time. 

By certain regulations of the War Department, as 
per act of Congress, February, 1862, and an act ap- 
proved October, 1862, arrangements were made for 
the payment of all claims for arrears of pay and al- 
lowances, and to deceased officers and soldiers of the 
Confederate army. 

The tirst section of the above named act provides 
that the pay and allowances due to any deceased 
volunteer, non-commissioned officers, musician or 
private in the army of the Confederate States, shall 
be paid to the widow of the deceased, if living, and 
if not, to the children, if any ; and if no widow or 
children, to the father, if living, and if not, to the 
mother of such volunteer. If the children are mi- 
nors, payment will be made to the guardian, upon 
the production of the proper certificate of guardian- 
ship, under the seal of the court. Many such cases 
under these acts occurred in this county (Wilcox). 

I drew several applications during the years 1864 
and '65 of widows, mothers and fathers for arrears 
of pay, clothing, &c., due to husbands, mothers and 
fathers under the acts and regulations referred to. 



36 LIFE OF T. W. PEICE. 

The party claiming had to produce his or her affi- 
davit, and that of a witness of creditility, stating 
the relationship, and that no other person is entitled 
to claim. The magistrate administering the oath had 
to certify as to the creditility of the witness, and the 
clerk of the court had to certify, under seal, that he 
is such magistrate. It also had to be shown to what 
company and regiment the soldier belonged. All of 
those papers I prepared, at much time and labor, 
and forwarded them to Col. W. H. Fowler, of Rich- 
mond, Va., who was superintendent of army records. 
Some of these applicants I think received what was 
due their husbands and sons. I do not now remem- 
ber of ever having charged one cent for my labors in 
these matters, for my impression then was that it was 
the duty of every good citizen to aid in preparing the 
evidence required by law in such cases, and to take 
no fee for such services, especially from the joor; at 
least that no good man would attempt to speculate 
upon the claim of a dead soldier from Alabama, who 
had been suffering and spilling his blood for his 
country. 

On the 17th day of February, 1864, Congress passed 
a law to organize forces to serve during the war, 
after the passage of which all white men, residents of 
the Confederate States, between the ages of seventeen 
and fifty, should be in the military service of the 
Confederate States for the war. 

Under that act, however, there were many classes 
of persons exempt from military duty under rules 
and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of War. 
Among that exempted class of persons was one over 
seer or agriculturist on each farm or plantation, upon 
which there were, on the Ist of January, 1864, fif- 
teen able-bodied hands between the ages of sixteen 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 87 

and fifty. There were also many conditions upon 
which these exemptions were granted ; one was that 
the -applicant should enter into a bond payable to 
the Confederate States of America, with such secu- 
rity and under such penalties as the Secretary of War 
might prescribe, conditioned that he will deliver to 
the Goverment, within twelve months, one hundred 
pounds of bacon or pork and one hundred pounds of 
beef for each able-bodied slave on the farm or plan- 
tation within the above said ages. Now there were 
many applications of this sort, and I did a good busi- 
ness in fixing up the papers, and was well paid for 
my time and trouble in the currency of that day, 
which was Confederate money, and like my other 
labors availed me nothing in the end. 

About that time (1864) the people of the Confeder- 
ate States began to doubt the results of the war, and 
their ability to hold their slaves. Consequently 
many were anxious to sell them, and did so at enor- 
mous prices in Confederate money. 

My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, Rebecca P. 
Lancaster, (who now lives with me,) and my wife, 
all had likely young negroes, and were always vio- 
lently opposed to selling or bartering in human flesh, 
and looked upon the negro trader as a very unenvia- 
ble occupation. Notwithstanding this aversion to 
selling or buying negroes, all that belonged to my 
wife, and who were raised by her, were forced into 
market before the war, and sold to pay my debts, 
and debts, too, for which I received little or no ben- 
efit. Those belonging to my mother-in-law remained 
in the family until 1865, when they were freed under 
the law. 

My sister in-law Rebecca held on to hers, and 
would listen to no sort of proposition to sell, and 



38 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

would, almost insult any person who would propose 
to buy her negroes whom she had raised, and who 
had always been treated well and kindly. 

Believing as I did during the war. that negro prop- 
erty would soon be lost to their owners, I made an 
appeal to her, and finally succeeded in getting her to 
consent to sell one family — a woman and six chil- 
dren, whom she sold to Dr. M, W, Creagh, for five 
thousand nine hundred dollars. I made the trade, 
gave a bill of sale signed by her, received tlie money, 
and in less than one week laid out the most of the 
money (Confederate) for land at $25 per acre. A 
part of the tract is where Mrs. Catherine Martin now 
lives, and was bought fiom Mr. Thomas Morton, 
who, with his wife, made a title to Rebecca. But 
for this sale of negroes and purchase of land with 
the proceeds, she to-day would have been destitute 
of any income or means. 

I come now to a period in the history of my life 
which requires some explanation, which I hope may, 
in some degree, justify my course. I was raised by 
a Northern man, who had a great taste for propa- 
gating fruits. In my early life I had much of it to 
do, and contracted that habit, which continues with 
me to the present day. When I settled at Rehobath, 
feeling permanently settled, I went to work and 
planted me a small orchard, as I had done at other 
places I had settled, which I intended for family use, 
and had no intention of making brandy. 

After the war had commenced and we were cut off 
from all importations of liquor, medicines, &c., it 
was suggested to me that I ought to distill some of 
my fruit into brandy. I bought a small SOgallon 
still, I think it was, and that being a good fruit year, 
I put up the little still on a branch near Rehobath, 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 39 

and my old friend, Jonathan Hazle, made me that 
year, 1862 or 1863, I think it was, about 80 or 100 
gallons of good peach brandy, as well as I now can 
recollect. 

I found it in such demand that it would command 
a good price, and that people flocked for miles around 
oflFering from $10 to $25 per gallon. From this fact 
I began to conclude that it was the most money mak- 
ing business in the country for the labor and capital 
invested. In addition to this I was satisfied that our 
slaves would soon be set free, and that we would be 
left in a dependent condition. I therefore began to 
reflect upon the last means of making a living. I 
did not feel that I was able to take the plow handles 
to support my family, and with such a government 
and currency as was before us, I concluded the prac- 
tice of law would not pay much. 

I therefore adopted the plan of raising an orchard 
and manufacturing the fruit into brandy. In addi- 
tion to the small orchard I had, I bought land, 
cleared and fenced it, bought trees from various nur- 
series in South Alabama, and planted until I had 
about 80 acres in peach, apple and pear. 

I commenced erecting a distillery at the place 
where I now live in 1867, and continued to enlarge 
my establishment as my fruit increased until 1872, 
by which time my whole orchard was in full bearing, 
and that year tiere was an abundant crop. I had 
distilled my fruit for several years previously, and 
had no trouble with the government except one year, 
about the amount of taxes, which was afterwards 
settled to the satisfaction of the Government. In the 
spring of 1872 I notified the officers of rerenue in the 
Custom House at Mobile of my intention to distill 
my fruit as I had formerly done, of the number and 



40 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

capacity of my still, &c. 

Afterwards I sent down my distiller's bond, with 
instructions if there was any defect in it to return it 
immediately and it should be corrected. Not hear- 
ing from my bond, and concluding it had been ap- 
proved, or they would have returned it, as I had re- 
quested, and my fruit ripe and ground up, I com- 
menced distilling in July. I learned that when the 
bond was received in the Custom House in Mobile 
that one Perrin was in the office, and had gone home 
with another man from this (Wilcox) county (Long 
Sorgum) for the purpose of getting Perrin appointed 
Assistant Assessor for this county. I also learned 
that the Chief Assessor handed Perrin the bond and 
told him to come up here and get me to correct the 
defect in the bond, which defect was that I and one 
of my securities had signed our names to it, by our 
initials of given and middle name, instead of signing 
our christian names in full, because not made by the 
authority of the United States Collector. 

I will here state that the officers of the Court and 
the officers of the Custom House showed me much 
respect, and seemed disposed to do me justice in the 
whole matter, and one of the officers told me I would 
not have been molested but for the interference of 
two men in my own county, who, I presume, were 
Perrin and Sweet Sorgum. 

I have no charge to make against the officers of the 
Custom House or the United States Grovernment. I 
will here relate one instance to show the confidence 
the United States Government had in me. When 
that man Squires had me in custody, when we 
landed in Mobile he took my valise and told me to 
follow him to the Custom House, as he wanted to 
turn me over to the Marshal, who very respectfully 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 41 

told me I could retire to any place I desired, so that 
I would be there at 9 o'clock next morning, 

T will finish this part of the proceeding and now go 
back to the seizure of my property. When Perrin 
and his brother-in-law, Brown, came, as I have 
stated, I offered him (Perrin) any sort of a bond, in 
any amount and any security, if he would let me go 
on and not destroy my property. This he refused 
to do. 

After this another seizure was made in September 
following, by one Squires, who stopped my mill, 
nailed up everything, and put the whole in charge of 
a free negro, whose wages and board I had to pay, 
and the keeping of my horses at a livery stable, and 
all other expenses connected with the seizure. Well, 
after the Marshal discharged me, as mentioned above, 
I went back to the Custom House at 9 o'clock, as re- 
quired, waived a preliminary examination, entered 
into bond for my appearance at the term of the 
United States District Court, and came home. 

This was in the fall, and the next term of the court 
was in May, 1873, at which term the Grand Jury 
found no bill. Doctor Foster, the Collector, received 
a letter from the Commissioner at Washington City 
directing the dismissal of the proceedings upon pay- 
ment of all costs and taxes by me. This was done, 
and the District Attorney, with the sanction of the 
Court, dismissed the suit. In the meantime I had 
given a heavy bond for the restoration of my prop- 
erty, that is, for what had not been totally destroyed. 
I will here state that some of the best men in this 
county went on that bond, and to whom I shall ever 
feel grateful for auch acts of kindness in distress. 

There are some other friends who aided me in this 
matter by writing letters in my behalf and greatly in 



42 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

my favor to Dr. Foster, the Collector, and to the 
United States District Attorney, J. P. Southworth. 
The friends to whom I refer in writing those letters in 
my behalf are the Hon. J. I. Roach, of Camden, 
Hon, James S, Dickinson, of Grove Hill, Clarke Co., 
Hon. W. B. Modawell, of Marion, Ala. and the Hon. 
William M. Brooks, of Selma; all of whom have 
known me for many years. The latter gentleman, 
Judge Brooks, not only wrote letters in my behalf, 
but he relinquished to me an attorney's fee which I 
justly owed him. Those gentlemen shall always 
have a place in the bottom of my heart, remembering 
to my latest breath their kindness to me, especially 
Judge Brooks. 

But, oh, what shall I say of my gratitude to lovely 
woman, from whose benevolent hands I have received 
money favors, when the world would say they were 
under no obligation to bestow them. A kind hearted 
christian woman in Rehobath told my wife she knew 
I was in trouble and distress and told her to tell me 
it I needed money she would let me have it. She let 
me have |200. I owe $50 of it yet. She tells me to 
pay it when I can. May Heaven and happiness be 
her portion. 

A lady living in Mobile when she heard of my sit- 
uation while there in the custody of an officer, sent 
me money. A gentleman there did the same thing, 
A gentleman from Rehobath, the night I was arrest- 
ed, followed me to P. Bluff where he knew I had to 
wait for a boat, and gave me money, and offered his 
services in any way he could benefit me or my fami- 
ly. That man was a Mason. He is now dead and I 
hope in Heaven. How different are the hearts of 
these ladies and gentlemen from a man, who, when a 
proposition was made to help me, replied as I under- 



LIEE OF T. W. PRICE. 43 

stand, that Price got into the trouble himself, now let 
him get out. That man was a Mason and a member 
of a church. Does he possess that love and charity 
toward his fellow man, which masonry and religion 
require ? 

After that I was arrested by that same Squires un- 
der a charge of violating the enforcement act, in in- 
terfering with elections by intimidating voters. This 
warrant of arrest was for myself and Dr, John Lynch 
and was issued on the 1st day of October by Henry 
S. Skates, United States Commissioner for Southern 
District of Alabama, founded upon the affidavit of 
C. J. Atkinson, a negro school teacher, a man whom 
I never saw as I know of, and who swore that I re- 
fused to allow the election polls to be opened at Clif- 
ton precinct, and hindering the voters of said precinct 
from exercising the right of suffrage secured to them 
by law. in an election on the first Monday in Febru- 
ary, 1872, for Judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions 
for Wilcox county. As we went down the Alabama 
river the boat stopped at Clifton and took on six ne- 
gro fellows as wituf^sses against me, to wit : Bartley 
Mendinal, Toney Watson, Dan Watson, Frank Wat- 
son, John Smith, and John Mendinal. These wit- 
nesses were separated on the preliminary trial, and it 
was surprising to hear the conflict of testimony, ex- 
cept as to one point, and that was Mr. Candee came 
to see them, told them where to go, when to go, and 
what they were going to Mobile for. There was no 
testimony tending to convict me, and with a few re- 
marks by my counsel, the case was dismissed and I 
was discharged. 

I would here remark, that my attorneys, Messrs. 
Manning & Walker, had but little trouble in this 
case. In the other case of my arrest and seizure of 



44 LIFE OF T. W. PEICE. 

my property, they had much trouble from the fact it 
was so long in suit. They, especially Mr. Walker, 
Mr. Manning being absent part of the time, did me 
good and faithful service and managed my case with 
great skill and ability, and for which I am under 
many obligations. 

Now the world may judge what sort of a condition, 
pecuniarially, I was in, my property destroyed or I 
deprived of the use of it, my business and credit 
broken up, myself driven to the plow handles for a 
living, and my wife and daughters to the wash tub, 
and the cook pot. 

The question arises now why should a man be thus 
ruined without a fault or crime on his part. 

To me the answer is at hand, I will give it, and 
leave the world to judge if I am correct or not in my 
opinion. 

1 come now to the most remarkable event in the 
history of my life, and I doubt if it has a parallel in 
the state. 

On the 19th day of December, 1871, an act of the 
Legislature of the State of Alabama, was approved, 
to establish an inferior Court of Record lor the coun- 
ty of Wilcox, with criminal and civil jurisdiction. 
This act provided that an election should be held in 
the county on the first Monday in February, 1872, to 
elect a judge of that court, whose term of office was 
six years, with a salary of two thousand dollars a. 
year. Soon after that act was passed, I proposed to 
be a candidate for that office. In the meantime I 
saw some of the leading men of the Republican party 
and told them that if they had a candidate, that I 
would decline. In a few days I received a note from 
a prominent man of that party informing me that Mr. 
C, C. Colton, of Camden, at that time, was a candi- 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 45 

date for that office, I immediately wrote to my 
friends at Camden that Mr, Colton was a candidate, 
and that I would not under any circumstances be a 
candidate for that office, for I did not choose to run 
for the fun of being beaten. 

I thought no more of the election or of the office as 
I had entirely given it up to the Radical party. But 
on Saturday before the election Monday, I received a 
note from a friend of mine in Camden, stating that 
the Executive Committee had nominated me for 
Judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions, and that on 
the east side of the river the white men would be no- 
tified to turn out, and that I must keep it from the 
Radicals that I would run, 

I also received letters from other friends, who urged 
me to go to Clifton on Monday of the election, and 
advised me how to proceed. Telling me that runners 
would be sent to other precincts in the county to in- 
form the people that I was the nominee of the Demo- 
cratic Conservative party. 

Under these circumstances and urgent solicitations 
of my friends, I got on my horse on Sunday, passed 
b}'^ P. liluflf, and told Mr. J. N. Ervin and others I 
had been nominated as a candidate for Judge of the 
court referred to, and I think showed the letter to 
him, I went on to Clifton that night and on Monday 
morning I told my business, and showed the letter 
giving the action of the Executive Committee. But 
I am inclined to think, I handed the letter to the 
wrong man, as it did not seem to take so well, I re- 
mained until the hour of opening the polls, when 
some little dispute arose between Dr. John Lynch 
and some of the managers or clerks. I determined 
then to take no part in it. By this time a large crowd 
of negroes had assembled. Among them were sev- 



46 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

eral who had lived with me, or been about me very 
often, and whose young masters and mistresses had 
been to school to me, I recognized them, spoke a 
few words to them and told them I thought I had 
some claim upon them for their votes. They replied 
that Mr. Colton was their man, I got on my horse 
and rode home that evening. The polls were not 
open when I left, but were opened soon after, and the 
election held. 

I have given the beginning and conclusion of my 
Clifton trip. For which I was arrested and carried 
to Mobile to appear before a United States officer, to 
answer the charge of violating the Enforcement act, 
and intimidating voters. That warrant of arrest, for 
myself and Dr. John Lynch, was issued upon the af- 
fidavit of C J. Atkinson, who was, as I understand, 
hired by a man in Wilcox county (Candee) to go to 
Mobile to swear what he did in that affidavit, when 
it was shown by the testimony in my trial that he, 
Atkinson, was not seen at that election or in that pre- 
cinct during the day. It will be remembered that 
my competitor and contestant was the brother-in-law 
of Candee, and who with others, had said, as I un- 
derstand, that by the time I was done with that office 
I would not be worth twenty-five cents. Now why 
is it, that I should have been thus prosecuted and 
persecuted, taking from me my property, my credit, 
and my business ? for as a general thing when a man 
loses his property, he loses his credit, because peo- 
ple lose confidence in him. These men cannot say 
that I ever did them or their party any willful harm. 

It is said I held the office of Judge of the Court of 
Quarter Sessions through fraud. Now I will not un- 
dertake to say there was no fraud practiced in that 
election. But this much I can say with a truth and 



LIFE OF T, W, PRICE. 47 

with a conscience as clear as the noon- day sun, that 
if there was, I had no part or lot in it, nor did I ever 
connive at any such fraud. For I always thought 
and firmly believed that the purity of the ballot box 
was the very palladium of our government, and af- 
fords the only protection and safety of our civil rights. 
This whole election was fully examined into by the 
proper officers. First by the board of Supervisors, 
who counted out the ballots, and gave me two hun- 
dred and fifty majority. The case was taken to the 
Probate Court and it was there decided that I was 
elected. A bill of injunction was then filed in the 
Chancery Court to restrain me from the duties as 
judge. This injunction was dissolved and the bill 
dismissed by the Chancellor. 

Immediately when I was declared elected by the 
supervisors, a friend of mine took my certificate of 
election to Montgomery and got my commission, and 
others urged me to have no hesitancy in accepting it, 
and advised me to resist every effort that Mr. Colton 
might make, to be put in over the intelligence of Wil- 
cox county, by the votes of freedmen. I still hesi- 
tated to accept my commission fearing it might bring 
me into trouble ; but I was told I would be acting in 
bad faith to my friends and party if I refused. 

In order to show that a few Radicals of this county 
got up this whole thing against me, and their hostili- 
ty to me, grew out of the fact that I held the Judge- 
ship of the Court of Quarter Sessions, I will here give 
a copy of a paper prepared for me to sign : 

The State of Alabama, ") 
On the information of C. C. Col- | In Circuit Court 
ton, and C. C. Colton, J- of Wilcox county, 

vs. 1 State of Alabama. 

T. W, Price. I 

In the above titled cause pending in the said Cir- 



48 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

cuit, I hereby admit the right of the said C, C. Col ton 
to the said office of Judge of the Court of Quarter 
Sessions of Wilcox county ; that he received a major- 
ity of the votes cast at the election, for said office in 
said county on the fifth day of February, 1872 ; and 
that I am not entitled to said office ; and I further 
agree to let judgment in said cause go by default 

against me. Witness my hand this the day of 

1872. 

I have in my possession a paper certifying that the 
foregoing is a true copy of the original, which paper 
or certificate is signed by I. J. Parker of Montgom- 
ery, S. Foward and G. M. Files of Clarke county, 
and Daniel M. McLean of Wilcox county, and dated 
October 7th, 1872. 

A promise of relief was made to me, if I would 
sign it. This I refused, and went on to Mobile in the 
custody of the officer who had arrested me, not know- 
ing but that I would land in the penitentiary at Al- 
bany. Before this unfortunate affiair, I was well to 
do, had means, money, credit and a good business, 
but now I have neither. 

The most remarkable feature connected with this 
court is, that its first term was held in April, 1872, 
and by an act of the legislature approved December, 
1873, the same court was abolished, upon the peti- 
tion of some one hundred and forty democrats of 
Wilcox county. This petition was presented to the 
next legislature after the election for Judge, but 
never acted upon, for what reason I am unable to say, 
until the succeeding legislature. 

This petition circulated through the county, I sup- 
pose secretly, for I never knew who the petitioners 
were until after the court was abolished. And I on- 
ly ascertained the fact then, by accident. I was com- 



LIFE OP T. W. PEICE. 49 

plaining frequently that the Radicals of this county 
had aided in my ruin, and then took my office from 
me. They heard of this, and to rid themselves of the 
charge, one of the party brought me the original pe- 
tition. I never was more surprised when I ^saw the 
names on it, and whose signatures I recognized, of 
some of my neighbors, and persons whom I took to 
be my best friends. I frequently heard of a petition 
being circulated, to abolish the court, but supposed 
it was gotten up, and signed by Radicals and ne- 
groes. 

From that source I could expect nothing else, nor 
could I have reasonably complained as they were 
disappointed in getting the Judge they wanted. 

Why my so-called friends should have secretly, as 
I think, aided in knocking the last prop from under 
me while sinking, is indeed remarkable to me. This 
leads me to conclude, that between frail and imper- 
fect creatures there is no such thing as perfect friend- 
ship. 

Notwithstanding many men are friends solely from 
interested motives, yet there are some who are friends 
in the bleak night of adversity, as well as in the sun- 
shine of prosperity. Reader, hast thou a friend of 
this sort ? If you have, then you have a pearl of in- 
estimable worth. Such a friend you should never 
lose sight of, and remember what the great Pythago- 
ris said, that a friend should not be hated for little 
faults, and that your best friends tell you of your 
faults, 

A man in adversity and trouble wants such a Mend 
as the poet describes ; 

*'G!-ive me the man whose liberal mind. 
Means general good to all mankind ; 
Who, when his friend, by fortunes wound, 



60 LIFE OF T, W. PEICE. 

Falls tumbling headlong to the ground, 
Can meet him with a warm embrace, 
And wipe the tears from off his face." 
I understand some of the petitioners said they 
signed the petition because they thought Mr, Colton 
would hold the office, and for that reason wished the 
Court abolished. Now I cannot see how they could 
come to such a conclusion, when the case had been 
investigated by three tribunals and each one decided 
in my favor. 

Others said they signed it on account of the taxes 
incurred in carrying on the Court. How could this 
be when many of the signers only paid a poll tax and 
could not have been affected by any tax created by 
the Court. Besides as the business of the Court of 
Quarter Sessions increased, the amount was dimin- 
ished in the Circuit Court, and if the taxes were taken 
off of one court and put upon the other, where was 
the loss to the tax payer. 

Again, by the act of the legislature that abolished 
the Court of Quarter Sessions, the Court of County 
Commissions of Wilcox county were authorized to 
provide for the payment of the expenses, and for the 
compensation of the Judge of the Circuit Court, Har- 
per, of Wilcox county, for holding an extra session 
of the Circuit Court, commencing on the first Monday 
in January, 1874, to dispose of the business of the 
Court of Quarter Sessions, Had the Court of Quar- 
ter Sessions continued, there would have been no ne- 
cessity for this extra session of the Circuit Court, and 
consequently no provision necessary for the payment 
of expenses and extra compensation of the Circuit 
Judge. But suppose, for the sake of argument, the 
Court of Quarter Sessions, did cause an additional 
tax, why was not that thought of when the court was 



LIEE OF T. W. PRICE. 51 

established ? How is it that within the short space 
of nine months, the people became so suddenly seized 
with a fit of economy ? 

Again, when the people of the county knew that I 
had been ruined financially, because I accepted the 
judgeship of the court, was it charitable in them to 
put me out of office, and leave me in debt and pover- 
ty in old age ? Suppose there had been an addition- 
al tax upon the people, was it kind or friendly in 
them to ruin on© individual, in order to put a dollar 
or two in their own pockets ? 

Again, the constitution of the state of Alabama 
guaranties to every citizen of the state, in all prose- 
cutions by indictment, a speedy public trial, by an 
impartial jury of the county or district in which the 
offense was committed. Now it is well known, that 
in the Circuit Court of Wilcox county, many cases, 
both civil and criminal, were not reached or contin- 
ued, hence parties were delayed and deprived of a 
speedy trial ; and criminals were compelled to lie in 
jail from term to term, greatly to their detriment and 
at a very heavy expense to the county. Taking all 
these facts into consideration, the Court of Quarter 
Sessions, as I honestly think, and as some attorneys 
have told me, was a court of necessity and of econo- 
my, I think the members of the bar, and other un- 
prejudiced person will sustain me in this opinion. 

But suppose every excuse they make, to be valid, 
why resort to secrecy ? Why was it that I was mix- 
ing with my fellow citiaens daily, yet a petition of 
democrats, was circulating through the county, to af- 
fect me most seriously, and signed by my neighbors, 
yet I did not know it. There is a prevalent princi- 
ple in human nature that ever rules the declarations 
of men, and that Is the secrecy with which they do 



,52 LIFE OP T. W. PRICE. 

an act. If their views are free and open, why not let 
them be examined by those whom they are to effect. 

Secrecy and concealment ever afford ground of 
suspicion. If a person with stolen goods, conceals or 
attempts to conceal them, this fact is a strong evi- 
dence of his guilt. 

During the time I had the honor to preside, T got 
on with the business very smoothly. I tried to be 
courteous and respectful to all members of the bar 
and officers of the court. If I failed in this, it was 
an error of the head and not of the heart. 

The members of the bar and the officers of the 
court all treated me respectfully and politely, espec- 
ially the sheriff, Ed. Mc Williams and a goo(i friend^ 
to me. I am gratified to say, too, that notwithstand- 
ing some appeals were taken from my decisions, they 
were all affirmed by the Supreme Court, and npt one 
case reversed that I know of. 

During one term of the court, a little incident oc- 
curred, which I will here relate, leaving those who 
are wiser and more experienced than myself, to de- 
termine whether I was right or wrong. There was a 
case on the criminal docket of burglary, and I think 
the property stolen, from the proof, was three chick- . 
eiis, from a rotten, pine pole hen house, if I iam not. 
mistaken. I think we had been on the case about 
twenty-four hours. When I would adjourn court 
for meals, I could hear outsiders remarking to each 
other, and in my hearing, that the business of the 
court was unnecessarily delayed and that the l£iw- 
yers took up too much time in argument, and kept 
others parties and witnesses there on expense to them- 
selves and to the county. 

When court was called next morning, I had all the 
members of the bar called in, I then addressed my. 



LIEE OF T. W. PRICE. 53 

self to them, in the most respectful and polite man- 
ner, that I was capable of, and stated to them in sub- 
stance about as follows : That I thought the business 
of the court was very much and unnecessarily retard- 
ed, by long speeches, preparation of papers, and ex- 
amination of witnesses. I told them that they were 
at home, at their business, with their families, and at 
no expense. That perhaps they did not think, there 
were many parties here, to suits, as well as jurors 
and witnesses, who were away from home, from their 
families, from their business, and at a heav}^ expense 
to themselves and to the county, and urged them to 
expedite the business as fast as the nature and jus- 
tice of the case would allow. That I had waited on 
them with a great deal of patience and forbearance. 
But that there was a point at which patience might 
cease to be a virtue. 

One of the members of the bar jumped up and said, 
in behalf of the bar, he would state that it they had 
to be put through like horses, that the appeals taken 
from this court might cost the county more than the 
delay here. He took his seat, and I said nothing 
more but went on with the business, 

I had gotten my idea of lingo mania from an arti- 
cle I read upon that subject, written by a wise and 
experienced man. He said ; "Many public speakers 
say too much for their own credit, the edification of 
those who hear them, or the good of our common 
country. Legislative sessions are prolonged in this 
way, our courts are extended, vast amounts of money 
wasted, and less good produced, than if we had no 
speeches in the halls of legislature, or in the halls of 
justice. If men want to make long speeches, let them 
seize upon the strong points of the subject to be dis- 
cussed, stop when they have said enough, they will 



54 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

then sooner acquire the celebrity they desire, save to 
the treasury large sums of money, and prove more 
conclusively that they love their country, and re- 
spect themselves and their constituents. Let us bri- 
dle our tongues, and keep our hearts with all dili- 
gence, and be careful not to offend in word, deed or 
action." 

If I had adopted a rule to hear but one counsel on 
a side argue any cause, when the rule and practice 
were that two counsel were allowed to address the 
jury ; or if I had restricted their speeches to five, ten 
or fifteen minutes, then I would have far overreached 
my duty, and would have been guilty of a usurpa- 
tion of power not tolerated in any judge. Such re- 
strictions have been used in other states if not in Ala- 
bama. All I asked, or desired was that the busi- 
ness of the court might not be delayed further than 
the nature and justice of causes required. I thought 
the sharp and excited reply made to me by the gen- 
tleman, was altogether uncalled for. 

Although in my advanced stage of life I have lost 
all I had, yet it is a pleasant reflection to know that 
I have done some good in my life, and that I have 
not misspent my time. I look through the country 
and see many men and women whom I have educat- 
ed, who are useful and good citizens, and well to do 
in life, and who always meet me with kindness and 
hospitality. 

There are two young men now in Dayton, Marengo 
county, whom I trained and educated. They are 
prominent business men, honest, industrious, prompt, 
economical and worthy of credit. Their success in 
life may have been in some degree the results of my 
advice and lessons given them, at least I take some 
of the credit to myself. 



LIFE OF T, W. PEICE. 55 

Another young man in Uniontown, Perry county, 
Mr. C, C. C, who followed me in my schools for ten 
years, and who is now above reproach, surrounded 
by friends, comfort and prosperity. He is a young 
man, who is worthy in every respect, and a pattern 
for any young man to follow, 

I could say the same of hundreds of others from 
whom I have received sympathy and kindness. One 
little instance I will relate : Shortly after my troubles 
and losses, I was taken sick, remained so for two or 
three months, was so low in the way of finances, that 
I had neither money or credit to buy me a dose of 
medicine or a bottle of bitters. About that time a 
young man, not very young, who had been to school 
to me in Dayton, who is now a good lawyer and lives 
in Marengo county, came to see me, saw my situa- 
tion. I told him I was out of money and out of cred- 
it. He took out his pocket book, showed me what 
money he had, and handed me half of it. I have 
seen the time when five hundred dollars was not as 
much to me as that small amount he gave me, I was 
ready then to conclude that as bad as the world is, 
there are those in it, who can feel and appreciate the 
woes of others, and lend a willing hand to help them 
out of the ditch. I concluded that that friend was 
not of the class of people who were selfish and avari- 
cous, who live only for themselves and die for the 
devil. But for such kind friends and the money 
made by my daughter in teaching school, I would 
not have decent clothes to wear, or the necessities of 
life. 

There are many living witnesses to establish what 
I say. When these things have been spoken of my 
enemies seem to doubt. When I say enemies, I 
mean those who have injured me. They were not 



56 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

my enemies because I had not injured them. The 
general rule is that if a man injures you he then be- 
come your enemy. 

Notwithstanding I have lost my property, and have 
been twice arrested and dragged to Mobile by a fed- 
eral officer, yet I have no general charge to make 
against the Republicans as a party, for the officers of 
the Federal Court and of the Custom House treated 
me gentlemanly^ except Perrin, Squires and a few 
others in Wilcox county, who erected a gallows, 
placed me upon the platform, put the rope around 
my neck, and one hundred and forty democrats in 
the county came along and knocked the prop from 
under me; and left me swinging between the heaven 
and earth ; some democratic friends came passing by, 
saw me kicking, cut me down, took the halter off and 
turned me loose, and blessed be God, I am yet alive 
and still kicking. 

Now I have not the least charge to make against 
the democratic party as a party, I belong to that 
party, and have since the old whig party became ex- 
tinct. Have since that time voted with the demov 
crats, expect to do so, for in it are some of my best 
and most esteemed friends, a party, that I think, is 
destined to save the county. While I now belong to 
the democratic party, I have no axe to grind, seek no 
office, ask no votes, and all I ask is to be left alone. > 
God has given me two hands and blessed me with , 
health and strength though near seventy years old, 
yet I still kick and hope to make an honest living, 
by the sweat of my brow. 

Notwithstanding, I have in this book, mentioned 
the names of my persons who have favored me in 
many ways, yet there others I cannot forget to men- 
tion, and who have a claim on my gratitude which I 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 57 

shall always feel bound to pay when an opportunity 
may oflfer, Mr, W, F. who was among my first ac- 
quaintances in Wilcox county over twenty-years ago, 
and who now lives where he then did, I have lived 
near him during that time. His family and mine 
have been intimate and friendly. After my losses 
and troubles, he not only made me a present of corn 
and other things but of money. His son D, made me 
presents and did mechanical work for me and made 
no charge. Mr. N. B, G. who lives in the same neigh- 
borhood, and who was once a pupil of mine, loaned 
me money in time of distress. Another gentleman, 
who is a neighbor of mine, Mr. J. C. M., who in Oc- 
tober, 1872, paid a note of mine three hundred and 
fifty-two dollars. This was after I was broke up. I 
think I paid him a small amount on it, I have tried 
to arrange the balance with him in several w-ays, but 
never succeeded. He has never dunned me, oran- 
lioyed me in the least, and if he ever complained of 
me, I never knew it, I hope to live long enough and 
to make enough to pay him. K I do not I will en- 
join it upon my children to pay that debt, 

I could continue to swell the list of friends, but I 
only mention these cases to show the difference in the 
hearts of men. While these gentlemen have shown 
me favors, indulged me, and sympathized .with me, 
there were others who refused me credit, pressed the 
last cent out of me, and instead of aiding and assist-.- 
ing me, were ready to throw obstacles in my way. 

Duty compels me here to notice some remarks 
which have been made by some of my friends (ironi- - 
cally) about me^ It has been said that Price was an 
industrious good fellow, but that he was "a poor 
manager, a poor financier, and therefore not worthy 
of credit." Now I want to reply to that, by saying, 



fl8 LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 

that if a man is shrewd, sharp, cunning, having no 
confidence in his fellow man, but understands how 
to swindle some person in a trade, and get something 
by willful swindling. I say, if these things consti- 
tute a good manager and a good financier, I plead 
guilty to the charge and acknowledge I am a poor 
manager and a poor financier. Again, if a man is 
close, penurious, stingy, selfish, lives for himself 
alone, and holds on to the silver dime, with a grip 
• that makes the eagle squall. If these make a man a 
good manager and a good financier, I acknowledge 
I am neither, nor do I envy the man who is, with 
such conditions annexed. 

He may pile up his gold, he may fill his store- 
houses and his barns, he may turn a deaf ear to the 
calls of a distressed fellow man, but the day may 
come, when he may be convinced that he himself has 
been a poor manager and a poor financier. 

As a general thing if youth be selfish, manhood 
will be niggardly, and old age miserly. Such a man 
starves himself. He submits to more torture to lose 
heaven than the martyr does to gain it. He worships 
the world, but repudiates its pleasures. He endures 
all the miseries of poverty through life, that he may 
die in the midst of wealth. 

In these, the latter days of my life, I look back to 
ante helium days and call to mind many such charac- 
ters as I have above described, and ask myself the 
question where are they to-day, and where are their 
children, and what is their condition ? These laws of 
retribution will come in some way, and at some time, 
as certain as there is a God in heaven. I have lived 
long enough in this world to see them demonstrated. 

May God forgive such wickedness in people, change 
their ways and teach them the folly of idolatry. 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 69 

But I want to show that if I am "a poor manager, 
a poor financier and unworthy of credit," I have suc- 
ceeded in making two good livings in my life, I will 
not say fortunes, for fortunes are sometimes made 
that are no credit to a man when strictly investigated. 
When I first started to make a living for myself, I 
had nothing. Went on striving honestly, I hope, 
until the flush times of 1835-37, up to that time I had 
a good property, out of debt, and looked upon a man 
who would suffer himself sued, as disgraced. But 
by security debts, which I had to pay, and the great 
depreciation of property about that time, from 1837 
to 1840, swept me of what I had. There are now liv- 
ing witnesses to prove the facts I state. 

Well, from 1840 to 1872, I had accummulated an- 
other good living, but not by dabbling in government 
or private cotton in 1865, had a good property, could 
pay my debts, had a good business and credit ; but 
all soon took wings and fled, and most of the people 
in this country, especially in this county, know how 
it went, and as I think, and shall contend to my lat- 
est breath, by no fault of mine. 



60 LIFE OP T. W. PBIOE. 



jirrEAL TO Y^OUTH. 

In the first epistle general of John, second chapter 
and part of the fourteenth verse, we find these words : 
"I have written unto you, young men, because you 
are strong." Now let us see how you are strong* 
I will first endeavor to impress upon your minds, the 
necessity of observing the advice which I am about 
to give you. 

Suppose you were about to set out on a journey 
which lead through a wilderness, beset on every side 
with perils, and you had no friend to guide you, or 
to warn you of the precipicies and dangers before 
you. Would you not be glad to find 8ome friend 
who had traveled that road, and who feeling for your 
interest and happiness, would map out the road and 
show you all the dangers of that vayage, that you 
might go through safely % Would you not r^^gard 
that man as your great benefactor, and would you 
not follow his directions ? 

Now my young friend you are about to take a voy- 
age, and that is the voyage of human life, and its 
destination is eternity. That voyage is attended with 
dangers. Snares and traps are set on that road to 
catch you and may involve you in hardship and toil. 
Now I am an old man and have traveled nearly to 
the end of this voyage. Many times my way looked 
smooth and inviting, but in some instances I have 
found concealed beneath, rocks, quicksands and prec- 
ipicies, and have been twice shipwrecked. 



LIEE OF T. W. PRICE. 61 

Now you are on your way, and many of you may 
be without guide, compass or chart. Will you allow 
me to point out some of the dangers you may meet 
with in life, and suggest some plan by which you 
may avoid them ? 

I assure you I do this in a spirit of philanthrophy, 
and I trust in doing so I attempt a service for a most 
interesting portion of society, and while I use plain 
language, I hope you will do me the justice to con- 
clude that I do so for your present and future hap- 
piness. 

In the first place, don't have too many advisers, 
for my experience is, the world is full of them, espec- 
ially in politics are they numerous, and are very pa- 
triotic when their interests are involved, and advise 
you to go for their party, right or wrong. 

It is strongly argued by many that two parties are 
necessary for the safety of the government, that one 
may watch and detect the corrupt designs of the 
other. I will admit that this argument would be 
sound if both parties would exclude all demagogues 
from their ranks. 

2d. In matters of more importance than all others, 
I mean the church and religion, you will find legion 
of advisers. 

There are thousands of sectarian views which are 
discussed and promulgated by various denomina- 
tions, which mystify and bewilder those who are 
really seeking truth. They all take their creeds from 
the same Bible, which teaches tht m to serve the same 
God, and seek the same heaven. My advice to you 
would be to go to the Bible, there you will find your 
duty to God and man described in a few words, ear- 
ly them out, and you will rarely err. 

3rd. Beware of the thousand snares set for you by 



62 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

deceitful man, 

I cannot better give you an idea of tliis, than is ex- 
pressed in the lines of the poet Merrick, on the trials 
of virtue : 

' 'For see, oh see, while yet her ways 
With doubtful steps I tread, 

A hostile world its terrors raise, 
Its snares delusive spread. 

O, how shall I, with heart prepared, 
Those terrors learn to meet ? 

How from the thousand snares to guard 
My inexperienced feet ?" 
4th. If you have a business attend to it, for it is 
easier to be a good business man, than a poor one. 
If you go out on business attend promptly to it, and 
then as promptly go about your own business. Do 
not stop on the streets to tell stories, crack jokes or 
play tricks. If you have a place of business, be 
found there during business hours. No man ever 
got a business reputation by sitting around stores 
wliittling sticks, smoking cigars, chewing tobacco, or 
drinking whisky. A good business habit and repu- 
tation, are always money. Time is money. Make 
your place of business attractive, then stay there and 
wait on your customers. Help yourselves and others 
will help you. Do not be in too great haste to be 
rich, for that is the rock on which thousands have 
been wrecked. Learn to say "no," but when neces- 
sity compels you to siiy it, do so tirmly, but respect- 
fully and politely. And let me urge upon you to 
have but few confidents, the fewer the better. Use 
your own brains, if you have a good supply. Learn 
to act and think for yourself. If you are poor, never 
despair, never be idle, for idleness is the author of 
want and shame. The house of idleness is a confused 



I 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 63 

workshop for the devil to tinker in. Idleness is a 
criminal prodigality, because it wastes time which 
was given to you by your Creator for wise and good 
purposes. Every poor man or boy should remember 
this, if he desires to occupy a respectable place in the 
memory of his fellow man. 

Every poor young man should depend on his own 
efforts, for few men are rich now, 1876, if he expects 
to acquire character and independence. Many of 
our greatest men have sprung from poverty and the 
humblest walks of life. 

We know that many who start from the ranks of 
poverty, have many difficulties to beset their paths. 
But if he pursue an undeviating course in virtue and 
integrity he will have the respect and confidence of 
his fellow man. Young man, you have the mould- 
ing of your own destiny. Labor ipse vohiptas omnia 
vincit. Labor itself is a pleasure, labor conquers 
everything. The physical powers of the idle man 
become enervated. He converts himself into a living 
sepulcher, loathsome to himself and all around him. 
Let idleness be banished from the land and we would 
then have less crime and misery. Virtue and happi- 
ness would receive a new impetus, 

A word on education, and I hope that an interest 
may be awakened on this subject of the future desti- 
ny of our young men. Parents too often undertake 
to make great men of their sons, instead of practical 
business thrifty men. When I speak of educated 
men, I do not merely mean those who have had the 
advantages of a collegiate course of studies, but all 
men whether at the plow handles, the workshop or 
the desk, who train themselves to habits of thought 
and reflection, who read and digest what they read. 

I am an advocate for colleges and wish there were 



64 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

more of them, but I am of opinion that many boys 
and young men spend time and money there to but 
little purposes. There are but few boys who have 
talent to become great literary or professional men, 
and if their time and talent were spent in learning 
some good mechanical trade, they might be a success 
in life, whereas a college course puffs him up with 
pride and vanity, fills his mind with ideas of extrav- 
agance and idleness which render him a failure in 
life, I have had an opportunity in my life of observ- 
ing the rise, progress and end of many boys whom I 
have taught. I can call to mind now several, who 
during the days of slavery, when everybody was rich 
and was able to indulge their sons in all their wants 
and pleasures. The first thing was to put boots on 
them over their pants, the next to buy them a pony, 
saddle and bridle, then to give them a gun and two 
or three hounds, let them have money to spend and 
go unrestrained, without learning a single useful 
habit. Then he must go to school, with the under- 
standing that he was a sort of a pet at home and con- 
sequently the teacher must indulge him. But the 
boy wants more liberties, after a while, than the 
teacher is willing to allow, and draws the rein on 
him. The boy won't stand this, and refuses to go to 
the common school, but is willing to go to college. 
So the outfit is made up and off he goes, remains as 
long as he chooses, comes home a bundle of idle, ex- 
travagant habits, and I may say, fit for nothing, a 
total failure in life. 

Had these boys been put to the plow, the jack 
plane, or trowel, they might have been good citizens 
and happy. No man is happy who has no useful 
employment. What is necessary to make respecta - 
ble farmers and mechanics ? 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 65 

I answer, to have proper training when young. 
Teach them to think that labor is honorable, and at 
the proper age, if you find they have not the talent 
or disposition to make professional men, bind them 
out to some good mechanic, and teach them if they 
obtain a good trade by steady labor in three years, 
that they are well paid, for a man in this country, 
at the age of twenty-one, with a good trade and good 
habits, has a good living, if not a fortune, in his 
hands. Yet we see hundreds of young men, shame 
to say, who are out of employment, and just waiting 
for something to turn up. 

I now want to say a word to young men upon a 
subject, of which I can apeak from sad experience, I 
mean that millstone, debt. It is the father of many 
ills and miseries. It invades self respect. It carves 
many a frank, open face into wrinkles. It changes 
a good face into a mask of brass. It makes a true 
:man a callous trickster. 

But freedom from debt gives sweetness and nour-^ 
iahment in bread and water. It gives warmth in a 
threadbare coat, if it is paid for. It makes the old 
worn hat warm, if it covers not the aching head of a 
debtor. I know many of us shudder at the thought 
of poverty, but however bitter the cup may be, it is 
sweet, if you can say, I owe no man. Now I say to 
you my young friends, if you want a thing, do with-i 
out, unless you have the money to pay for it, and 
flee debt. Do this, and thy heart will be at rest and 
the sheriflf will be confounded. 

Obedience to parents and revence for the aged. 

My young friends, the Bible contains many passa- 
ges which show conclusively the duty of children to 
be odedient to their parents, and show reverence for 
age. If this was not the case and made the duty of 



66 LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 

children, the peace and happiness of the domestic 
circle would be frequently broken up, perhaps never 
to be healed. Awful must be the feelings of that 
child who wilfully disobeys his parents or shows them 
any disrespect. Such a child not only violates the 
commands of parents^ but of God also, and in doing 
this, they sin against high Heaven, Children owe 
their parents a debt of gratitude which they can 
never pay. 

I will refer you to a few passages of scripture, 
which will teach you your duty better than anything 
I can say. I hope you will examine them, read them 
with care and practice them through life. 

Exodus, XX, 12. Honor thy father and thy mother, 
that thy days may be long in the land, which the 
Lord thy God giveth thee. 

Proverbs, i, 8, 9. My son keep the instructions of 
the father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. 

Proverbs, xiii, 1; A wise son heareth his father's 
instructions, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. 

Ephesiane, vi, 1. Children obey your parents in 
the Lord for this is right. 

Collossians, iii, 20. Children obey your parents in 
all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord, 

Deuteronomy, xxvii, 16. Cursed be he thatsetteth 
light by his father, or his mother, and all people 
shall say Amen, 

Proverbs, xv, 5. A fool despiseth his father's in- 
structions. 

Proverbs, xxx, 17. The eye that mocketh at his 
father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens 
of the valley shall pluck it out, and the young eagle 
shall eat it. 

Now I am inclined to think, and if I believed the 
Bible I can come to no other conclusion, than that 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 67 

the child or children who violates the foregoing com- 
mands of the Bible, will in some way and at some 
day be overtaken by jadgraent ; for my observation 
is, and I have observed many, that children who 
have been wilfully disobedient and disrespectful to 
their parents or aged persons, rarely ever turn out 
well. 

On the contrary, filial attention conciliate favor and 
multiply friends, A daughter, who with aflEectionate 
assiduity, nurses and consoles her father or mother, 
in the decripitude of old age, in sickness and in sor- 
row ; a son who bestows a liberal share of his labor, 
or his income, to support his needy parents, rarely 
fails to find friends in time of need. But a child 
would deserve the reputation of a monster, if he failed 
to deny himself, in order to enable him to aid needy 
parents. 



HJlBIT. 

There are many things which seem difficult to chil- 
dren and youth, which habit would render easy. 
This is a very important consideration for youth. 
Manj'^ persons have had the mortification to say, ''I 
can't, I used to do it, but I cannot now." The rea- 
son of it is, they have not kept up the habit. There 
are many habits which are necessary to follow in 
youth, which may not be required in more advanced 



68 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

life. In all manner of business, regularity, habit 
and system, are of incalculable value. You do much 
more labor, with much more facility by such order 
and system than you could accomplish by careless- 
ness. For the sake of your own comfort, for your 
friends solace, for the sake of your eventual prosper- 
ity, cultivate a strict manly habit of economy. 

Avoid the habit of drinking whiskey, chewing and 
smoking tobacco, speaking evil of others, and above 
all, avoid the habit of idleness, for I assure you this 
leads to many other bad habits. Perhaps you have 
not been in the habit of listening to advice and may 
think it too late to begin now. If you have any such 
feelings it ought to arouse in you, a sensation of 
shame and alarm. Let me tell you that the youth 
who refuses, and turns a deaf ear to the advice of 
friends, does not occupy a very enviable position, : 



COJSrCL TJSION, 



I cannot close this part of the subject without re- 
ferring you to the 12th chapter and 13th verse of Ec- 
clesiates, which says, ' ' Let us hear the conclusion of 
the whole matter ; Fear God and keep his command^ 
ments, for this is the whole duty of man." Now not- 
withstanding I quote the Bible, and urge you to take 
it for your guide through life, yet I have to confess 
with shame and sorrow, that I am neither a member 



LIFE OF T, W. PRICE. 69 

of any church, or a professor of the Christian relig- 
ion. If I had the latter and nothing elae, I would 
feel rich ; if I had the world and not the latter I would 
be poor. 

The verse I have referred to above I commend to 
you, with the blessing of God. Hope you will read 
it, study it and practice it. The services which I 
have attempted to render \ ou, I hope may ^.^ be as 
bread cast upon the waters, and in that last great 
day, may not be found to be in vain. 

How are you, boys and young men, strong ? In the 
commencement of my appeal to you, I referred you 
to the first epistle general of John, 2d chapter and 
14th verse, showing your strength. Now I want to 
show you how I think you are strong. Now in the 
virtue and intelligence of the youth of a country is 
its strength and safety. While youth is preserved 
uncorrupted, and act their parts on the stage of life, 
no dart can be hurled against the safety and pros- 
perity of the country. Then you must be strong, and 
as your strength increases, so will your responsibili- 
ties increase. The strength of the old and middle 
aged will soon be handed down to you, and if you 
are not fitted to fill their places, society and govern- 
ment will feel it. 

The agnd fathers who have acted their parts to pus- 
tain society and governments are fast passing away 
and will soon all be ,gone. Those, too, who have 
passed the meridian of life, are fast going down the 
declivity of time. When we see and know these 
things, the question naturally comes up, who is to 
fill tlieir places '^ Who is to shoulder the great re- 
sponsibilities now resting upon them ? The question 
is easily answered. It is you young man. Then pre- 
pare yourselves to fill the high position you are cer- 



70 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

tainly destined to occupy. Who is to own and occu- 
py the property of the country ? Who is to fill the 
pulpit ? Who is to advocate the cause of the suffer- 
ing widow, or the injured orphan ? Who is to make, 
expound and apply the law ? All these things and 
many others, which go to make life useful and ijappy, 
will be committed to your hands. 

Scores of living men, who are ornaments to our 
country, have made themselves, by their own unaid- 
ed exertions. Think not you will become wise with- 
out strong efforts. These things require your most 
serious consideration, and if a young man cannot be 
persuaded to consider what he is, and what he is to 
become in future life, then I say not much good can 
be expected of him. The great misfortune with most 
young men, they cannot be made to think. They do 
not ask themselves. What am I ? and what is my des- 
tination in this and the future world ? They do not 
examine the Bible enough to ascertain for what pur- 
pose they were placed here in the midst of beings 
like themselves. 

Do they ask parents or friends what duties they 
owe them ? No, and consequently many of our 
young men are ignorant of many of their duties, be- 
cause they do not se>-k to find them out. 

Now I repeat the verse referred to, "I have written 
to you young men, because ye are strong." I have 
endeavored to show that you are strong, and that 
you are accountable how you exert that strength. 
If you fail to exert it for good, and for the liappiness 
of your fellow man, you will be criminal in the sight 
of God, for neglect of such important duties. 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 71 



W^OMA.JSr. 

I cannot close these few scattering events and 
thoughts of my life, without expressing my ideas 
with reference to the power and influence of lovely 
woman, especially the young. But for woman, and 
refined female society, man would approximate the 
brute. Young ladies may not know that they pos- 
sess a power and influence, upon which hangs the 
destiny and safety of our country ; for we learn from 
history that we of this generation, are in some degree, 
indebted to our mothers for the liberty we enjoy. 

The usefulness and virtue of woman, depend very 
much upon their education. By educating them 
properly and raising them high in the scale of intelli- 
gence, they will be much more able to protect them- 
selves from any insults of bad men. Bad men some 
times flatter and betray woman, while a good man 
never dt)ed. Every refined gentleman feels that it is 
his duty to protect, cherish and love ladies, who keep 
in their proper sphere, and treat and esteem them as 
they merit. Is it not strange, that woman with this 
view of the question, will sometimes, in angry and 
turbid waves of passion, descend from her high des- 
tiny and jar and quarrel with man, for rights, which 
do not belong to her, and which, if possessed, would 
only render hei wretched and unlovly ? 

We frequently hear the expression, "She will make 
an excellent wife for somebody." If she possesses 
all the qualities to make a good wife, the young man 
who takes such a companion to cheer him through 
the pilgrimage of life, is blessed indeed. His heart 
will never be made to ache, by witnessing waste, ex- 



7^ LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

travagance and fashion. He will never hear scolding 
words, or see scur looks. He can say, my cup is full 
of happiness with such a wife. 

In order that a young lady may know her duties 
in the domestic circle, as wife, mother or sister, she 
must be educated. I do not mean by this^ that she 
must understand latin, greek and the higher branches 
of mathematics, but a thorough education in all that 
is valuable from getting up a good dinner, keeping a 
nice house, to the reading of the classics. 

With reflections of sadness, T am inclined to think, 
that from the condition of the country but few of our 
young ladies are receiving what is really a good ed- 
ucation. This brings us to conclude that it is impor- 
tant that mothers should be educated. Now suppose 
that the mother in every family was an educated wo- 
man, then we might have a little school in every fam- 
ily, and if they were poor, they would not be igno- 
rant, while Uod gave them hands to work and minds 
to think. There could be no better teacher in a fam- 
ily, or one who could give more useful home instruc- 
tion than an intelligent and educated mother. 

I would be glad to see the day come when all 
mothers were educated and if necessary become teach- 
ers in their families. In the language of a wise man, 
"If we would educate but one class of our children, 
we should choose the girls, for when they become 
mothers they educate their sons." Indeed, it is said, 
that no nation can become fully enlightened, when 
mothers are not in a good degree qualified to dis- 
charge the duties of the home work of education. 

The great Sir Philip Sidney who was distinguished 
for his great religions and moral vitues and particu- 
larly for his great generosity, says he was indebted 
to his excellent mother for the rudiments of his edu- 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 73 

cation. He says that sickness, which had impaired 
her beauty, inclined her to hide herself from the gay 
and fashionable world, and give her time and atten- 
tion almost exclusively to the education of her chil- 
dren. Suppose in this day of poverty and distress 
in our country, it was necessary for mothers to pos- 
sess wealth, rank or high literary attainments, in or- 
der to educate their children, it would be a lamenta- 
ble state of affairs, and many would grow up in 
ignorance. But we should be thankful that this is 
not so. A woman of mere plain sense, who has read 
but little beyond the Bible, to learn her duty, and 
whose worldly circumstances and means are very, 
limited, is capable of teaching her little ones, and 
leading them in the way thej^ should go. 

Now young ladies, will you allow me in all kind- 
ness, to say a few words to you in the way of advice ? 
Will you take what I say as kindly as I offer it ? 

Don't allow yourselves to be lead off too much by 
fashion and gayety. Don't be too fond of the danc- 
ing school, the ball room, the theatre, and whist par- 
ties. These things alone do not fit you for the wife 
of a sensible, prudent man. Nor will such a man go 
to such places to seek a good : wife, for he knows in 
the gay circles of the upper ten, few such women as 
the mother of Washington are found. She was igno- 
rant of them all. Now to make a good wife — and 
good wives generally make good husbands- she 
must be thoroughly educated in the English branch- 
es, the Bible, and all the domestic duties, from the 
cellar to the garret ; without these they are rarely 
qualified to be good wives or good mothers. Woman 
in always lovely, safe and useful in the domestic 
circle. 

In bygone days, j'oung ladies were taught many 



74 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

good lessons in the log cabin school house on the hill 
side, with cracks open in summer and dobbed in 
winter. There they were taught not to neglect the 
body ; there the foundation of much good learning 
was laid ; there they were taught to speak reverently 
and kindly to parents and to aged persons. J^ut oh, 
how is it in this fast age ? We see fine colleges and 
academies, model teachers, and model systems of 
training youth. But let me tell you, young ladies, 
there is a wheel loose some where. Notwithstanding 
we have made great progress in refinement and edu- 
cation, yet we are degenerating in physical strength, 
and becoming mere dwarfs in comparison with our 
ancestors, who were men and women of strength of 
mind and body. For instead of living out the good 
old age of three score and ten, we see by a scientific 
calculation the average age of man is now dwindled 
down to thirty-three and one-third years. We have 
made great progress in many and valuable things, 
and especially in intellectual education, but in the 
opinion of your humble servant, we have come far 
short, of that moral and physical training, which are 
necessary to make a truly educated man or woman. 
You must combine mental, moral, and physical edu- 
cation. 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 76 



FJlSHIOJST. 

Wft live in a Christian country, and profess to wor- 
ship God our creator, and if we were told that we 
worshiped idols we would feel ourselves insulted. 
Yet if we will examine the subject fully we will find 
that an anti-christian deity is in our midst. That 
deity \9, fashion^ and we are zealous devotees to her 
laws and we obey them whenever commanded to do 
so, though they are not founded at all times in rea- 
son or common sense, but frequently contrary to the 
laws of comfort or decency. Look where you will, 
you see all classes and condition of both sexes, bow- 
ing and bending the knee to Fashion. She is a tyrant 
who compels you to sit up at night when you ought 
to be in bed, and keeps you in bed in the morning, 
when you ought to be up and doing. She invades 
your pleasures and interrupts your business, she 
compels you to dress gaily, when perhaps it is detri- 
mental to your health and comfort. 

She, it is said, kills more women than toil and sor- 
row, and if this be so, it is a greater transgression of 
the laws of woman's nature than the hardships of 
poverty. The servant or slave at her task, may grow 
old, and see her mistresses, much younger than her- 
self, pass away on account of what the world calls 
fashionable habits— tight lacing, tight shoes and want 
of exercise. 

Oh ! young ladies, I wish I could induce you to see 
and feel the folly of fashion, as I do. The best argu- 
ment I can use to convince you of this, is to ask you 



76 



LIFE OF T. W, PKIO;^, 



to read the biographies of our great and good men 
and women, and you will find none of them had fash- 
ionable mothers. The most of them sprang from 
strong minded women, who had as little to do with 
fashion as the changing clouds. The rich have means 
and privileges to make a grand display in the world; 
but will wealth cuie an aching head,: or sooth an ach- 
ing heart ? It ia no shield from the shafts of misfor- 
tune, or the arrows of death. If it adds to the com- 
forts of man, it also adds to his cares and responsi^ 
bilities, and it often brings his children to moral ruin, 
and whole families, though wealthy, may be beggared 
by fashion and extravagance. While persons who, 
in moderate circumstances, must prudently save what 
they have, or they too, will soon lose it, if they suffer 
themselves to be lead away by the folly of fashion. 
If you follow fashion beyond your real means, and 
in opposition to your health and comfort, depend 
upon it, you will be left in the mire at last. Fash^ 
ion runs and travels too fast for most of people to 
keep up with. 

- Let me give you a little illustration of what fashion 
has done, and what it may do again. Take a young 
lady who is lovely, beautiful and kind, she love^ 
home, her father, mother, brothers and sisters. Now 
take her from that position and place herin thehigli- 
est circles of fashionable life, with plenty of money 
and plenty of scope, to do as she pleases, let her dress 
herself as she will, cover herself with diamonds and 
pearls, costly silks and laces, let the love of admira- 
tion be the coutroUing passion , then you. will find 
that all that tenderness and affection of her voung 
nature will pas«. away. Her thoughts concentrate 
upon herself, what figure she is cutting, who her ad- 
mirers are, what conquests she can make ; then you 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 77 

will find her youthful modesty is gone, and a way 
opened for misery that would not have been dreamed 
of, had she remained in the domestic circle in the dis- 
charge of her duties as a daughter and sister. 

Now, young ladies do not conclude I am blaming 
you for fashions or blame you to be fashionable, for 
I know it is not your fault, for that tyrant. Fashion, 
has this country bound in chains riveted upon us, 
from which we cannot easily extricate ourselves. I 
know that it is not expected, nor would it be reason- 
able to conclude, that you should go into company 
in an unfashionable attire, to be pointed out or 
laughed at by the gazing multitude. But I say it is 
a great misfortune, inconvenience, and burden upon 
our whole country, that this inexorable tyranny, of 
custom and habit, prevails to such an alarming ex- 
tent in our midst. But alas, I can see no remedy. 
I would to God, there could be such a concert of ac- 
tion throughout the land as would effectually crush 
out this monstrous tyrant, fashion. 

In this great centennial year, embracing the period 
of time from July 4th, 1776, to July 4th, 1876, we 
boast of the progress of the age. This we do truth- 
fully and justly in many respects, for when we see 
the advancement m ide by the American people with- 
in the last century, in agriculture, manufacture, arts, 
sciences, &c., we are ready to exclaim what a won- 
derful people we are. But notwithstanding the in- 
creased facilities for production, and the means of 
accomplishing an amount of labor, which far tran- 
scends the ability of united mental effort to a«com- 
plish ; and notwithstanding the triumphs achieved in 
the many valuable discoveries and inventions, which 
are enough to mark the last half century, with that 
which has contributed most to augment personal 



78 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

comforts, enjoyments and blessings to man ; yet with 
all this have we not retrograded in some things tending 
to the interest and happiness of man ? Let us exam- 
ine, and see whether we have or not. Very few of 
this country know what was the condition of the peo- 
ple, especially the farmers, in the year 1776. They 
have no way of knowing this, except from history, or 
from those who wrote upon that subject, giving a de- 
scription of the habits of the farmer in the days of 
1776 and subsequent to that period. Now will you 
allow me to give you the words of a celebrated wri- 
ter, in speaking of farmers in those days : 
"Men to the plow, 

Wife to the cow, 

Girl to the yarn, 

Boy to the barn, 

And all dues settled." 
Now my idea is, if these things were so, the people 
had enough to do, lived well and were out of debt, 
consequently were more independent, and happier 
than most people are in 1876. What does the same 
writer say of the farmers in 1830. He says ; 
"Men a mere show. 

Girls, piano. 

Wife, silk and satin. 

Boys, greek and Jatin, 

And all hands gazetted." 
Now since 1830, there are many living witnesses, 
who can testify as to truth or untruth of the forego- 
ing lines. Let them speak out with a clear conscience. 
The same writer goes on describing the country, 
and the habits of the people from the year 1856 to 
1876, and says : 

"Men all in debt, 

Wives in a pet, 



LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 



79 



Boys, tobacco squirts, 

Girls dragging skirts, 

And everybody cheated." 
It is a fact that cannot be denied that there are 
thousand of living witnesses who can be placed upon 
the stand, and the truth to speak, as to the facts 
above stated. If I was placed upon the stand to tes- 
tify, from my long experience, and close observation, 
I should be inclined to concur in the sentiments of 
the writer. 

If these things be so, I can come to no other con- 
clusion, than that the people living from 1776 to 1830, 
were more independent and happy, than the people 
have subsequently, and therefore in these respects 
we have retrograded, for if we lose our independence 
and happiness, we are not in an enviable position. 



Allow me to sum up in a very few words, some of 
the most important events of my life. I was left in 
old Clarke county, Alabama, an afflicted orphan 
boy, about ten years old, without means or friends. 
I made my way up to 1836, without a stain or blem- 
ish upon my character, then about twenty-eight years 
old. Up to that time, I had by hard earnings and 
economy, accumulated a good living, was out of debt 



80 LIFE OF T. W. PRICE. 

and had some money. During the "Flush Times of 
Alabama," T lost all I had and what my wife had, by 
security and the great and suddea depreciation in the 
value of property. Since that time, I and my wife 
have toiled, and of late years my daughters in teach- 
ing, with increasing energy, until that fatal year to 
me, 1872, up to which time I had again acquired a 
good living and a competency. This has all been 
swept from me, and as I think without any fault of 
mine. A part of my little home and my last horse 
are now under a mortgage to pay honest debts. 
While I am left in old age, with a family of females 
to combat the storms of adversity. Not only has my 
property, my credit, and my business been taken 
from me, but my character has been assailed. In the 
words of Shakspeare : 

"He who steals my purse, steals trash. 
But he who filches from me my good name. 
Does that which does not enrich him. 
But makes me poor indeed,'' 






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